


















































s * » T, 

'* C 







^ J ° * x 





-v** V 







0 o 











O 











>v 










^ <$• : 








AV 

' -n° O. -' ’ -* + *>* y S* rD C)_ ■% « 

'^- »«. 1 * <p 


‘V <p 



£> \> v * 0 











\ { <J C' y NK ^' 

f\> S s * « , 

'***" % ^ \<f : 

&: <y \ \" ' ”' •■■' ’ y % -.' 

, %.-*.-, \ * ^ -* 7 ^' ,A ,„ V'-; * 4 .0» <„ V; 

S' * . ° . <■ v, 'V 

0 \ _i - * 















*\ £ *W 3K * o 




0 


y 







a v <i+ t r \ ' ' r ^ "> 

* , ?*. *» K ° v*' ^ % V, A * ' 

' * g> V « ' * ° / > v 9‘ 


V 

* * 

aV «j, 

^ y XrT^ v * A 

^ o • x * *6 o K c . ' ' * * " " v\ A v i » % ' 0 * # 

* r^Vcv * 'V Tv V -f .O 4 * V) 

A 


















° a5 ^ *■ ' 

*> » ;, x *o- 

> 81 o> 

cf> <CV 


VN * <* -V> «V a/\ /)* ^ •>* 





v^/ ^ ^ \/ v #vV .V s ^ , 

< ‘ sS ... ^ , v > * * % 



^ > 




v * 0 f > 




' o * V * 


cfv *■ 

* 9 I A * 

v> * ' " «t 

’■*<$' ' ■ ■-. %#* 
; <v *° . i f - r y • z > 

. vvQ i~ 1 

** o V ✓ v 

A \ 

^ K 



vO c> 








* 9 I A 


























































































REPORT AND DOCUMENTS 


RELATING TO 

THE LOAN OF ONE MILLION FIVE HUNDRED 
THOUSAND DOLLARS, 

NEGOTIATED BY 

THE HON. RICHARD RUSH 


THE CITIES OP WASHINGTON, GEORGETOWN, AND ALEXANDRIA, 
IN THE DISTRICT OF COLtTMfelA. 

. f *' > 1 ; 

f yJ 

■■ ■ ,"Tsrr„. .i sss 







\ . 












K 


, 

• V v v: 

■M 

i-d >>■ < . -v -4 


























i'i 










• ' 

, • 






I, 








V ,* 






















1 






























/ 




r 

V 

u » % •< • 


































’■; 

. 

» -i 










•fi , 

> - i 


' 


• * • 
































» V 








r, » i • 

H. • Li ■ 

ft ' t f < ; 

■ v < 

' 










^i 














\ 
















s. . 








I. 










• H 

A » * / . , j ; 

/ • 1 « 

• . .Ml ’•• >* 


































V 







■ 

• r . 











} y 






, 




r I ■ * 



s , 




* .|r 

































» \ 










Y -flfc 






’ i ' ( 

J “ ‘ ; .i 11 


r o 










. . ■. " v . ' '5 

' l- 

c 

■ ' •' . ■' . fi 

* 

•V •' • • • '< ■ Vf‘ 4i’ 











LETTER AND ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS 


FROM 

/ 

THE HON. RICHARD RUSH 

i> 

TO 


JOSEPH GALES, ESQ., MAYOR OF THE CITY 
OF WASHINGTON ; 


RESPECTING THE 

LOAN OF A MILLION AND A HALF OF DOLLARS, 

NEGOTIATED BY THE FORMER, IN EUROPE, 

FOR 

THE SAID CITY AND THE TOWNS OF GEORGETOWN 
vAND ALEXANDRIA, 

UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF 

AN ACT OF CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, 

PASSED ON THE 24th OB MAY, 1828. 


PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CORPORATION OF THE 
CITY OF WASHINGTON. 


WASHINGTON : 

PRINTED BY PETER FORCE, CORNER OF ELEVENTH STREET 
AND PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 

1830. 

2L 





LETTER 


FROM 

THE HON. RICHARD RUSH. 


No. 7. 


London, November 25th, 1829. 

Sir: I am now finally to report to you, with the 
necessary fulness, the endeavors 1 have used for ne¬ 
gotiating the loan of a million and a half dollars for 
the three towns of the District of Columbia. In the 
performance of this duty, it is a source of great sa¬ 
tisfaction to me to commence by saying that my en¬ 
deavors have at length proved successful, the money 
having been raised in Holland, and at a rate of inter¬ 
est under the limit prescribed by the law. 

I set out by speaking of the whole loan. This I 
must necessarily do, for, from the beginning, I found 
that it would not answer to separate the case of the 
towns one from another. Nobody, here or in Hol¬ 
land, who contemplated a connexion with the loan 
at all, would listen to such a course. The whole sub¬ 
ject rested upon one and the same act of Congress, 
and the entire sum wanted was already too small, as 
several capitalists said to me, to form a current stock 
of any temptation in amount, in these markets. Any 
division of the transaction would have increased this 
objection, whilst it would have tended also to make 
more complicated what was considered as too much 



4 


so, even when taken as a whole. Nor could I, it is 
manifest, entertain a thought of trying to obtain any 
better terms for one town than another, claiming, as I 
did, for each, the fullest credit. The least attempt of 
that kind would have been full of hazard, and might 
have proved fatal to the whole plan. Nothing was 
more apparent, than that the cause of the towns as 
entrusted to me on this side of the Atlantic, was to 
rise or fall together. Hence, in drawing up this re¬ 
port, I must speak of this loan as one undivided ope¬ 
ration. Such was the course of my proceedings 
throughout, and such the way in which the loan has 
been obtained. Each town contracts, it is true, only 
for its own proper amount of the sum raised ; but the 
terms and conditions in all other respects are common 
to each, without discrimination. Hence, also, I have 
not been able to follow minutely the separate instruc¬ 
tions of each town. This would not have been pos¬ 
sible, because the instructions varied from each other, 
whilst I was forced to move upon one basis. My de¬ 
partures will be found, I trust, to have been only in 
immaterial particulars; and, indispensable as they 
were to success in the main object, they will, I per¬ 
suade myself, be sanctioned by the towns as confor¬ 
mable to the true spirit of their wishes. 

On my first arrival in London, after some prelimi¬ 
nary inquiries, including amongst them the state of 
the money market, which I found not very favorable 
to my object, I deemed it proper, on all accounts, to 
make my first direct approach to the house of the 
Messieurs Barings. The loan being authorized by 
Congress, and the security marked out by that national 


body, this house, as the bankers of the United States, 
seemed the one which I ought naturally to go to, first; 
apart from their letter to the Treasury Department, 
of the 13th January, 1829, on the subject of the loan. 
This letter, with a copy of which the Corporation of 
Washington was, I believe, furnished, although it con¬ 
tained no explicit engagement on the part of the Mes¬ 
sieurs Barings, appeared to have created an expecta¬ 
tion that their house would connect itself with the 
loan, if not take it all, provided they could have it 
upon the terms stated in that letter. Accordingly, on 
the 5th of June I addressed a letter to them (marked 
1, in the enclosuresj informing them of my arrival, 
and asking an interview. I enclosed in it the letter 
to their address (marked A) of the 18th of April, 
with which the Secretary of the Treasury, at the in¬ 
stance of the towns, had furnished me; and also a 
document that had been given to me at the Depart¬ 
ment of State prior to my leaving Washington. The 
latter was merely in the light of a passport, but had 
a bearing upon the case from its stating officially the 
fact of my coming here on public business that con¬ 
cerned the towns, and because it described them as 
under the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Gov¬ 
ernment. I received their answer ("No. 2) fixing a 
time for the interview, and on the 10th of June two 
of the members of the firm waited upon me at my 
lodgings in the Regent’s Park. Discussions passed 
on the whole subject of the loan. They put various 
questions touching the validity of the security ; the 
ability of the towns to pay the sum wanted; the 
meaning of particular clauses in the law of Congress 


6 


of the 24th of May, 1828, especially as regarded the 
instrumentality of the President in expounding and 
enforcing the law, should it prove necessary ; and in 
short examined the whole matter with the caution 
that it might be supposed would characterise intelli¬ 
gent and experienced capitalists on such an occasion. 
I endeavored to give them satisfaction on every point. 
Wishing to consult brevity as far as may be compati¬ 
ble with a distinct account of my proceedings,'I will 
not swell this report by repeating the facts or conside¬ 
rations that I urged as recommendatory of the loan, 
but leave them to be inferred from the general tenor 
of the paper transmitted with my communication to 
the towns, of the 8th of September.* The interview 
lasted between two and three hours, and terminated 
without either of the partners having disclosed their 
intentions. I exhibited to them such documents as 
the discussion called for, and we separated with an 
understanding that the subject would be resumed. 
It was resumed, not in any formal or set interview, 
at this stage of the negotiation; but in conversations 
with individual members of the firm. In the course 
of these, coupled with the interview above described, 
they appeared to have viewed the subject under all 
its aspects; still, without expressing an opinion, 
though certainly not without intimating, by the drift 
of their remarks and interrogatories, divers objections 
to the whole operation. After the lapse of a proper 
time, I drew up, on the 18th of June, a letter to the firm, 
(No. 3) that I might ascertain distinctly their views. 
I stated in it, amongst other things, my wish to afford 

* See page 37. 


7 


them any further light that they might desire; but 
invited them, in a spirit of entire frankness, to make 
me an offer, if they required no further. After what 
had passed, I formed no sanguine expectations as to 
the character of their offer; but one, of some kind, 
I had nevertheless anticipated, from my remembrance 
of their letter to the Treasury Department. On the 
day following, one of the firm called upon me, and 
imparted the decision of the house. It was, for the 
reasons that he assigned, not to make any offer for the 
loan. Requesting to be favored with their decision 
in writing, I received from them the letter fNo. of 
the 22nd of June. It will be seen that their deter¬ 
mination not to become contractors, rested mainly 
upon their apprehensions that the stock would not be 
acceptable to the public here, from the nature of the 
security, whatever their own opinion of it; and that 
they inferred this the more strongly, from the fact of 
certain local stocks from the United States, already 
in this market, being so little acceptable. I regretted 
their decision the more from the fear of its effect upon 
others, as well from their high standing, as on account 
of their long and well known connexions of business 
with the United States. 

I will now speak of proceedings in another quarter. 
On reaching London, I found to my address various 
communicatious from Mr. Willink, of Amsterdam, 
long the banker of the United States in that city. I 
do not transmit copies of them, because they were 
but duplicates, the originals having been sent to the 
Treasury Department, where I take it for granted 
they must have arrived after I came away, and the 


8 


contents become known to the towns. Should this 
not have been the case, it is still unnecessary for me 
to send copies, as the whole substance of them merely 
came to this ;—that the loan could not, in his opinion, 
be obtained in Holland, under the present law; but 
that if the United States would guarantee it formally, 
the money might be raised there, at an interest of five 
per cent, with certain additional allowances for com¬ 
missions, bonus, and expenses, amounting to about 
three per cent. I replied to Mr. Willink on the 8th 
of June, (No. 5 ) stating that it was only under the 
present law of May the 24th, 1828, that I could treat. 
I received a further letter from him (No. 6.) in which 
he speaks very confidently of the impossibility of ne¬ 
gotiating the loan in Holland at all, under that law, 
and in which he anticipates the same issue in England. 
My information from Holland at about the period of 
receiving the Messieurs Baring’s adverse determina¬ 
tion, was different. So, notwithstanding the dis¬ 
couraging representations of Mr Willink, I resolved 
to go there, and look around for myself. I consider¬ 
ed it however of importance to make further efforts 
in London before I went, since to have been preced¬ 
ed by the rumour of total failure here, would have been 
a new and heavy obstacle in my way there. I de¬ 
termined before going, to try Mr. Rothschild. I was 
enabled to do so with advantage, through the house 
of Messieurs Gowan and Marx; a house well known 
to me, and much engaged in the American trade. 
Mr. Marx, of this firm, saw Mr. Rothschild on my 
behalf and explained to him the nature of the loan, 
of which Mr. Marx himself entirely approved. His 


9 


explanations prevailed with Mr. Rothschild, who ex¬ 
pressed his willingness to take one third or one half 
of the loan, if any capitalist in London, in connex¬ 
ion with the United States, to whose institutions and 
interests he, Mr. Rothschild had hitherto in a great 
measure been a stranger, would lead the way by tak¬ 
ing an equal amount. Under this information, 1 waited 
on Mr. Alexander Baring, at his residence in Picca¬ 
dilly. The letter of his house of the 22d of June, 
was in some respects, in a spirit not repulsive to my 
object, but rather with the infusion of another tone; 
which led me to imagine that they might perhaps 
come into it, in conjunction with others, though de¬ 
clining it as one presented wholly to themselves. 
With Mr. Baring, as the head of the house, I had a 
conversation on this footing. He admitted that it 
presented the case under a new aspect, but forbore any 
opinion, until he could see his partners, with some 
one of whom he said he w r ould shortly call upon me. 
He came accordingly, with one of them, on the 28th 
of June, when the whole subject was discussed 
anew in an interview that was prolonged to nearly 
four hours. Maps and other documents were in¬ 
spected ; the existing law very closely scrutinized ; 
and every consideration that could affect the loan, 
carefully and fully weighed. Objections were press¬ 
ed, and no keeness of desire shown by them, I must 
own, to have any contact with the measure. But 
in the end Mr. Baring said, that if I did nothing in 
Holland, Lshould not find him unwilling, for his own 
part, to take up the subject when I returned, on the 
new basis made known. The terms lie added must 
2 


10 


be no other, for we had talked of a five per cent, 
stock at 90, than those contained in the letter of his 
house to the Treasury Department, namely the max¬ 
imum rate of interest under the law; in other words, 
a six per cent, stock at par. I had not, at this epoch, 
mentioned Mr. Rothschild’s name, not feeling myself 
warranted; but said that the house which I believed 
would thus co-operate, was one of undoubted power 
to act with full effect This Mr. Baring intimated 
would be expected. 

Although, certainly, no irrevocable pledge was 
passed in the foregoing interview, yet such an im¬ 
pression was made upon me of the intention of their 
house to take a share of the loan fthe very terms 
being given out ) on the ground of another doing the 
same, that my only remaining concern was, at not 
being equally sure of the other party. Under this 
apprehension, I again saw Mr. Marx, who repeated 
his belief as to Mr. Rothschild. But at my wish he 
saw him once more, on the day before my departure 
for Holland, and wrote me the note fNo. 1.) of the 
seventh of July, confirming all his verbal assurances. 

I thus left London under the belief that the loan 
was obtainable here, at six per cent., and said so at 
Amsterdam, on proper occasions. Had only two 
thirds been taken by the Messieurs Barings and Mr. 
Rothschild, nobody doubted but that the remaining 
third would have gone off directly. The house of 
Messieurs Go wan and Marx were ready to have 
taken a sixth of the whole; though from no other 
American house, could I obtain an offer of co-opera¬ 
tion. I believed, from an early day after my arrival, 


11 


that it would be out of the question to get the loan 
off in London at less than 6 per cent, through any 
other houses than those of Messrs. Baring and Roths¬ 
child, admitting that it could be negotiated at all 
through any others. 

I took with me to Holland letters to several of the 
first capitalists of that country; amongst them, the 
Hopes, the Crommelins, the Labouchers, theBrawns- 
bergs, the Insingers. I found, on reaching Amster¬ 
dam, that the Crommelins were those with whom I 
could best treat. I may say, more strongly, that my 
only prospect of achieving any results promising to 
be at all satisfactory, was with them, or through their 
instrumentality. Their house is one of long standing, 
and of leading wealth and influence. It is also, at 
present, the house in Holland most largely engaged 
in the American trade. 1 need scarcely add, that for 
commercial integrity and honor, no house in Europe 
stands higher. With the members of this house, I 
had constant intercourse at Amsterdam, and fully 
laid my whole project before them. It was discuss¬ 
ed amply. They made themselves masters of the 
subject, but invariably declined making me an offer 
upon any terms, on their own account. Their in¬ 
formation also satisfied me, that, under the existing 
act of Congress, 1 could get no positive offer from 
any house in Holland. They were themselves how¬ 
ever willing, on certain prerequisites being settled to 
their satisfaction, to take the loan in hand, and en¬ 
deavour to sell it in the market at 5 1-2 per cent., at 
the risk of the towns, as mentioned in my letter to 
you of the 24th of July, from Amsterdam; the Mes- 


12 


sieurs Crommelins being the house to which I then 
alluded. I declined their proposal, thinking it safer 
and better to dispose of it absolutely at six per cent, 
in London, which l believed I could do. 1 requested 
these gentlemen to favor me with their views in 
writing, which they did in two letters fNo. 8, and 
No. 9J of the 22d of July. I beg to invite your 
particular attention to the letter marked confidential. 
Though so marked at the time, it is no longer con¬ 
sidered in that light, the motive being at an end. It 
will be perceived from this letter how many scruples 
this house had at going into the measure even in the 
manner they had themselves proposed, and how much 
they required from me in the way of removing those 
scruples, before they were to be considered as con¬ 
senting. Upon some of their points, I was not even 
sure that I should be able to afford them satisfaction. 
Nevertheless, I deemed it judicious to reply to their 
letters without then noticing those parts ; and so to 
write to them also as to leave the way open and easy 
to a renewal of the negotiation between us, should 
circumstances dictate its expediency. My letter (No. 
10 J of the 23d of July, written on the eve of my 
departure from Amsterdam, was carefully shaped in 
these feelings. I had various objections to their pro¬ 
posal, to say nothing of the difficulties that might 
arise under their letter in question, as long as I had 
the belief that I could effect a clear and absolute sale 
of the loan in London, at a rate that the law would 
sanction ; but it assumed a different aspect in my 
eyes under any possible frustration of that belief. 
In that case I had determined to take up their pro¬ 
posal, and see how I could best deal with it. 


13 


Leaving Amsterdam, I went to Paris. Being on 
the continent, I thought that it might be worth while 
to include that city in my range, though without 
much expectation that any thing could be achieved 
there. It turned out so. I had letters to the Laffittes, 
the Hottinguers, the Delesserts; but forbore to lay 
my plan before any of them, having ascertained be¬ 
forehand, through the most intelligent sources, that it 
would obviously be to no purpose. The hope of suc¬ 
cess in Paris was, in fact, regarded as visionary, after 
the obstacles that were found to exist in London and 
Amsterdam—always the abode of money-lenders in 
a degree far greater than Paris. Amongst others who 
favored me with their explicit and valuable opinions 
to this effect, was our late minister in Paris, Mr. 
Brown. 

I must use this occasion to bear testimony also to 
the friendly offices in all ways that 1 received from 
Mr. Hughes, while in Holland, our Charge d’Affaires 
in that country. Nothing could surpass the zeal with 
which he aided me in pleading the cause of the towns 
on every fit occasion. From Mr. Barbour too, late 
minister here, I received every assistance that he 
could afford ; and an immediate tender of like as¬ 
sistance from his successor, Mr. McLane, as soon as 
he arrived. 

Getting back to London in August, I had to regret 
that Mr. Marx was, at the moment, aw^ay. My first 
object was to learn how Mr. Rothschild stood, my fear 
of change being principally in that quarter. I was 
happy to find the general state of the money market 
not adverse to me at this period, the payment of the 


14 


July dividends on the public securities, having thrown 
money more abundantly into circulation. Designing 
to see Mr. Rothschild at once, 1 addressed myself to 
Mr. Shaw, of the house of Messieurs Thomas Wil¬ 
son and company, a house largely engaged in the 
American trade. This house declared, at the very 
outset, with perfect candor, that they would have no 
concern whatever in the loan, on their own account; 
but Mr. Shaw manifested every readiness to aid me 
in my operations with others. I learned from him, 
that Mr. Rothschild, at this juncture, was disinclined 
to take any share in it; but that he would perhaps 
take the whole, if Congress would give a direct 
guarantee. After some disappointments, from Mr. 
Rothschild’s numerous engagements, I at length had 
an interview with him on the 19th of August. I 
found him, as hinted, disposed to start objections to 
the present law, which I endeavored to remove in the 
conversation that passed between us. But he was so 
much pressed by other concerns; there was such a 
multitude, too, thronging his anti-chamber, that I re¬ 
quested he would allow me to present my whole case 
to him upon paper, that he might look at it at his 
own convenience. He approved of and encouraged 
this course, and I left him with the understanding 
that it should be adopted. It was then that I drew 
up the paper that accompanied my letter to you of 
the 8th of September. In the preparation of it, I 
aimed not only at removing the objections that ap¬ 
peared to be entering Mr. Rothschild’s mind, but had 
also special reference to those which had been made, 
more explicitly and fully, by the Messieurs Cromme- 


15 


lin’s, in the letter from them to which I have ventur¬ 
ed to call your attention. I transmitted the paper to 
Mr. Rothschild in its printed form, with a note ("No. 

11 ) on the 27th of August. He went to Paris a few 
days afterwards, as was understood, on some one of 
those financial projects in which, leagued with his 
brothers, he so often lends counsel and money to the 
potentates of Europe; but Mr. Shaw T , on the 4th of 
September, stated to me his belief, that, however pre¬ 
ferring the direct guarantee of Congress, he w'ould 
still take a half or a third of the loan, if the Messieurs 
Barings w r ould do the same. Mr. Shaw added that, 
to the latter I might freely make this representation. 
I forthwith wrote the letter, ("No. 12J to Mr. Baring, 
then at his country seat. I received his answer, ("No. 
13 J in w hich he postpones any decisive opinion until 
lie could exchange an explanatory letter with his 
partners in London. I wrote again, ("No. 14 J and 
received his final answer, ("No. 15J rejecting the 
whole plan. The rejection was unexpected. 1 
had felt much confidence in the co-operation of 
that house. I was under the belief, and still am, 
that Mr. Baring, individually, not only thought 
w T ell of the loan, ("the spirit of his letters will, 
I think, show this J but that his own inclination rather 
was to take it all. But he was unwilling, it appears, 
to go against the judgments of his “ working part¬ 
ners,” as he calls them, being out of the current of 
business himself. They, it seems, were afraid ot the 
measure, as well from the nature of the security as 
from the heaviness with which certain stocks from 
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and Louisiana, moved, 


16 


as was stated, in the English market. The objection 
to being united with others in the measure, as intima¬ 
ted in Mr. Baring’s second letter, was new. It had 
not been made in the personal interviews before men¬ 
tioned. The only ground-work of them, was co-ope¬ 
ration. I could not otherwise, in propriety, have again 
approached that house, after their letter of refusal. It 
w^as by taking that new position that I was justified, as 
I thought, in the renewed application. Subsequently 
to Mr. Shaw’s communication to me on the 4th of 
September, 1 had unequivocal assurances from other 
sources that Mr. Rothschild would have taken a share 
of the loan, if the Messieurs Barings had. Their re¬ 
fusal drove him away; nor could the former be pre¬ 
vailed upon to change their determination. I had 
transmitted the printed paper to them, and received 
their acknowledgment of it, ("No. 16J on the 7th of 
September. 

The cause of the loan went down in London from 
this period. No efforts of mine could bear it up against 
the nearly universal refusals that it met with from 
the American houses. Some were satisfied with simp¬ 
ly refusing, the common right of all; whilst others 
gave into expressions of disparagement concerning 
both the object of the loan and the security provided 
for it. Under such an aspect of things, English ca¬ 
pitalists, who would otherwise, I think, have been 
disposed to come forward, fell back, like Mr. Roths¬ 
child. I could not overcome their distrust. To very 
many, I presented the case ; to Mr. Goldsmid, of the 
Exchange buildings; to Sir Coutts Trotter, of the 
great banking house of the Coutts’s; to Mr. Drum- 


17 


mond, of the well-known house of that name; to 
Mr. Smith of Grosvenor Square, of the house of 
jSmiths, Payne and Smith; to Messieurs Overend 
Gurney and Company; to Sir Scrope Morland; to 
Messieurs Jones, Lloyd and Company, and to others 
almost without number. But all was to no purpose. 
From no one individual or house could 1 obtain an 
offer, upon any terms. All shunned it. This, too, 
at a season when the money market, from the peace 
between Russia and the Porte, had become peculiarly 
auspicious here; when almost all stocks had acquired 
new value; when capitalists, departing from the re¬ 
serve which preceded the peace, were freely unlock¬ 
ing their treasures for new investment; and when 
the disposition, almost the eagerness among all classes, 
to enter new fields, was increased by the belief that 
several of the continental governments, if not the 
British also, were contemplating a reduction of the 
interest upon large portions of their respective debts. 
In the midst of these encouragements, which even 
made the South American shares of 1825, and the 
Spanish bonds , of the days of the constitution, start 
up a little from the depths to which they had longde- 
cended on the stock exchange, every body in London 
was afraid of our loan. The house of Gowan and 
Marx formed the single exception It was in vain 
that I put forth a statute of the United States as its 
foundation; the taxable property of their metropolis 
and the two adjoining towns, as mortgaged for it; 
and the President of the United States as the protec¬ 
tor and guardian of the creditors’ rights, under both 


3 


18 


mortgage and statute. The whole was in vain. The 
cause had sunk in London, totally. 

Thus far, I have considered it proper to trace the nar¬ 
rative of the negotiation in the order in which it moved. 
It may not, perhaps, be wholly devoid of interest, and 
belongs to what is yet to follow, as marking my pro¬ 
ceedings in their connected and entire train. I have 
desired to be as short as a proper exposition of the 
material circumstances and correspondence would al¬ 
low. A great mass of private and informal notes 
that have passed during the summer and autumn, I 
omit, as not wishing to clog my report with what was 
inconclusive at the time, or has become irrelevant 
since. From as much as has been said, it is manifest 
that difficulties of some magnitude have attended the 
negotiation, some of which might possibly have been 
anticipated, though, not so readily, others. Believ¬ 
ing the cause of the loan to be intrinsically good, my 
path has been a plain one;—that of continuing to 
maintain it against the strange errors of some, the 
discouraging doubts of others, and the coldness of all. 

I now resume the history of my transactions in 
Holland. This will be both imparted and read with 
an interest of a different kind, as the transactions have 
been followed by the attainment of the object com¬ 
mitted to my charge. 

When it had become decisively known that the 
Messieurs Barings would have no concern with the 
loan upon any terms, either by themselves or with 
others, I determined to try again the Messieurs Crom- 
melins. My former negotiation with them, as has 
been seen, had been left suspended, rather than closed. 


19 


Although they had decline d making me any offer, by 
themselves, on the basis of an absolute sale of the stock, 
it seemed to me not altogether improbable that they 
might unite with Mr. Rothschild in such an offer. Af¬ 
ter, therefore, the lapse of a sufficient interval had 
convinced me that I should effect nothing in London, 
I addressed a letter ('No. 17 ,) to them on the r8th of 
September, throwing out the proposal of such a co¬ 
operation. I had sent them, previously, the printed 
paper already mentioned, indulging the hope that it 
might remove the scruples contained in their confiden¬ 
tial letter of the 24th of July, by meeting, as I had 
endeavored to make it do, the essential requisitions of 
that letter. Their first answer, (No. 18,) and their 
second, (No. 19,) followed speedily. In the first, they 
promise to take into consideration whether or not 
they could make me a positive offer as contractors, 
absolutely, for the loan. 

In their second letter, they come to the conclusion 
that they still, as before, cannot make a positive offer. 
But they revive the proposition of connecting them¬ 
selves with the loan, and endeavoring to sell it on 
commission, on account of the towns, provided all 
the certificates remained together. Their terms, they 
said, would be as follow, viz: 1. A five per cent, 
stock at 91 (afterwards 91 1-2J to be created ; com¬ 
mission, bonus, brokerage, and expenses off; or the 
stock to be stated to be sold as much higher as these 
w.ould amount to, and charged in account to the 
towns. 2. The foregoing charges not to place the 
borrowers at a higher rate of interest, calculated on 
the whole duration of the loan, than five and a half 


20 


per cent, per annum. 3. The interest to be paid at 
the Treasury of the United States, to such agent or 
attorney as the lenders may appoint; the principal to 
be reimbursed there in like manner. 4. Exchange 
to be guaranteed to the lenders, whenever it was in 
their favor; the borrowers having the benefit of it, 
when in theirs. 5. The loan to be for thirty years ; 
but the reimbursement to begin in ten years from the 
first advance, and proceed at the rate of one twenti¬ 
eth a year, until the debt was paid off. 

These were the general terms as at first stated in 
their letter, and an enclosure headed “ Note” that 
was contained in it; or rather they were the terms 
as I recapitulated my understanding of them, in my 
answer. I had by this time a sufficient view of the 
ground upon which the loan stood, both here and in 
Holland, to determine to accept them, as the general 
terms. I did so, subject to such further explanations 
between us as might be necessary ; taking care that 
the corporations were to lose nothing by thus trying 
to dispose of the loan in the market, if the experiment 
failed. My letter (No. 20,) of the 29th of Septem¬ 
ber, expressed my general assent. 1 moreover sta¬ 
ted, that if the loan were raised, the towns would 
not want the whole sum at once, but in instalments, 
the last of which to be paid on the first of January, 
1832, or at any rate not sooner than the first of Jan¬ 
uary, 1831, and that no interest was to commence 
until the first instalment was paid. Referring to the 
present form of the certificates, which 1 knew had 
been much objected to here, I also, to guard in ad¬ 
vance against any stumbling-block from that cause in 


21 


Amsterdam, proposed a mode of curing the objec¬ 
tion, should it be made, as explained in my letter, and 
the paper A 2, that was enclosed. I sent one of the 
certificates, that the form might be inspected. Their 
next letter, (No. 21,) informed me that the price of 
91 was not meant to cover their own commission on 
payments of interest and principal; and requested 
also that I would send them my powers to act 
on behalf of the towns. Then came their letter, 
(No. 22,) giving me to understand that they were 
preparing, under legal advice, the draft of the agree¬ 
ment or bond that must be passed between us; fur¬ 
ther, that their counsel had started some legal objec¬ 
tions under the act of Congress authorizing the loan, 
particularly as to the towns guaranteeing exchange, 
which they requested me to notice, and also that I 
w ould send them a legal copy of the act. My letter 
in reply, (No 28,) obviated their legal doubts, and 
answered other matters which their letters had em¬ 
braced. I transmitted them my full powers, with 
authenticated copies of the acts of Congress, and 
other documents which are recapitulated in my letter. 

With their next letter, (No. 24,) they forwarded 
two instruments or conventions, the one public, the 
other of a more private nature; each, if approved, 
to be signed and executed by me in due form as re¬ 
presenting the towns, and by themselves as the bank- 
ers of the loan. They stated that the matter was in¬ 
tricate and to be of long duration; that many things 
were to be provided for in the conventions that, were 
either enjoined by law or recommended by custom ; 
that the substance of them did not differ from the 


22 


terms that had been mentioned, but that in bringing 
the whole matter upon paper, the forms had to un¬ 
dergo modification, and that they had been forced 
also to pay regard to the form which the documents 
would assume when again turned into Dutch. They 
added, that the succeeding mail would bring me some 
explanatory remarks upon both instruments. I ac¬ 
knowledged the receipt of the conventions ("No. 25J 
on the day that they were received, saying that I had 
read them over, but that they would require a de¬ 
liberate examination before I could come to any 
judgment upon their contents. That this they 
should have, in connexion with the explanatory re¬ 
marks promised, for which I would wait. These 
remarks reached me with their letter ("No. 26 ,) of 
the 20th of October. In this letter they state that 
they had made an important alteration in the plan. 
That in the first draft of the Instruments, they had 
looked to a public subscription for selling the stock ; 
whereas, they had now come to a conclusion to do 
it by private subscription. The latter they said would 
be likely to act more safely and quickly, and would 
increase the chances of disposing of the stock. This 
mode I greatly preferred. By thus acting among 
their own friends assembled at their own counting- 
house, not only would the chances of success be in¬ 
creased as they said, but, what I considered material, 
the dignity of the towns would be saved from the 
consequences of a failure to raise the money by pub¬ 
lic subscription. Upon such a contingency it was but 
the part of prudence to keep an eye. The loan had 
already been declined by the bankers of the United 


23 


States here, and 1 had reason to believe that, if pub¬ 
licly offered, it would be opposed by the bankers of 
the United States in Amsterdam. This fundamental 
change in the plan, increased, very much, my dis¬ 
positions to look favorably upon all the other arrange¬ 
ments proposed by the conventions. Some further 
changes were introduced, as their explanatory remarks 
will show, marked D and E, among the documents 
transmitted. 

The public convention consists of fifteen articles. 
In their leading points, they may be thus summarily 
noticed. After a preamble, the first article provides, 
that the subscription is to go for nothing, unless sanc¬ 
tioned by the king of the Netherlands. This sanc¬ 
tion, stated in the correspondence to be an indispensa¬ 
ble pre-requisite, has since been obtained. By the 
second article, the Messieurs Crommelins are to issue 
their own bonds, 3750 in number, for 1000 florins 
or guilders each, this sum corresponding in amount, 
valuing a dollar at 250 cents Netherlands currency, 
with the aggregate sum of a million and a half of 
dollars, as at present expressed on the face of the 
certificates. By the third, the holders of these bonds 
are to be the true creditors of the towns. By the 
fourth the bonds are to bear an interest of five per cent, 
payable in Amsterdam, half yearly, at the counting- 
house of the Messieurs Crommelins. By the fifth, 
the lenders are to pay up their subscriptions, one half 
in the month of January, 1830, the other in July 
following, receiving interest from the first of each 
month. By the sixth, the reimbursement is to begin 
in 1841, and proceed at the rate of one-twentieth 
annually, until the whole is paid off. [Altered after- 


24 


wards to one-twenty-fifth, making the average dura¬ 
tion of the loan between twenty-two and twenty- 
three years.] The seventh arranges the form in 
which the bonds are to be paid off. The eighth that 
of filling up the blanks in the certificates, which are 
to be made due to the trustees of the proprietors 
of the stock, bearing an interest of 5 I -2 per cent., 
and reimbursable as the bonds; the bonds being 
derived from the certificates. By the ninth, the 
certificates, so filled up, are to be deposited at the 
domicilium of a public notary at Amsterdam, under 
the forms stated. By the tenth and eleventh, the 
trustees are to receive, by their proper agent or at¬ 
torney, from the treasury at Washington, all sums 
due under the certificates, interest and principal. 
The tenth also provides for keeping alive the trust, 
during the whole time that the loan has to run. By 
the twelfth, the remittances are to be made in Ne¬ 
therlands currency, the lenders having the benefit of 
exchange, or the borrowers, according as the ex¬ 
change may be at the time the lenders to be at no 
risk in transmitting bills on account of shipwreck, 
failures, or otherwise. This article also provides for 
the keeping of an account current between the agent 
of the trustees and the towns, of all moneys paid and 
received. The thirteenth, provides for the mode of 
reimbursing, should the original certificates be lost at 
sea. The fourteenth gives the formal stipulations by 
which I, as the agent of the towns, bind them; 
and invests the lenders with the rights of the bor¬ 
rowers under the law, upon the stock of the Chesa¬ 
peake and Ohio Canal. The fifteenth embodies the 
formal conclusion. 


25 , 


The private convention comprises twelve articles* 
The preamble recites that the Messieurs Cromme- 
lins having entered into the public convention as 
bankers of the loan, further agreements, which do 
not concern the public, are necessary as between 
them and the towns, through me as their representa¬ 
tive. The first article provides for the opening of 
the subscription at their counting house, as soon as 
the sanction of the king was obtained. The second, 
that the loan was to be considered as made, though 
the whole amount was not subscribed, provided three 
fourths were. This article, together with the pro¬ 
visions of articles 3, 5, and 0, are superseded by the 
fact of the whole having been subscribed. I approved 
of them had the issue been otherwise. The fourth 
article provides that the subscription to the nominal 
capital stock of 3,750,000 guilders, would be offered 
to the public at 96, the whole when received to ap¬ 
pear to the credit of the towns on the books of the 
Messieurs Crommelins at the price of ninety-six ; sub¬ 
ject to a deduction out of the last instalment of 4 1-2 
per cent, on the whole, which they are to bring in 
account with the towns for expenses of petitioning, 
brokerage, registration dues, stamps, paper, printing, 
lawyers’ fees, and all other expenses required for the 
creation of the loan. The seventh article is connect¬ 
ed with the preceding, but said to be only for great¬ 
er caution, there being no danger that the national 
revenue in Holland will make any further demands 
than those which have fixed the expenses in article 4, 
calculated under laws that now exist. The eighth 
article provides that the lenders are to retain out of 
4 


26 


the last instalment a sum sufficient to pay the divi¬ 
dends of interest that will be due on the first of July. 
1830, and on the first of January, 1831. The ninth 
contains certain provisions respecting remittances; 
amongst them, that should it ever so happen that the 
towns, through inevitable casualty in the transmission 
of bills, have not their funds ready in Amsterdam to 
meet their obligations punctually, and the Messieurs 
Crommelins think fit to advance money for the honor 
of the towns, that they are to charge five per cent, 
interest on such advances, and an extra commission 
of one per cent upon them. The tenth provides that 
the amount of the loan w hich will stand to the credit 
of the towns on the first of January, 1830, and the 
first of July, 1830, may be drawn for as they see 
proper. The eleventh offers the tow T ns an option 
that is described, as to the mode of drawing. The 
twelfth and last secures to the Messieurs Crommelins 
a commission of one per cent, on the payments of 
interest, and one per cent, upon the reimbursement of 
the principal. It also entitles them to charge in ac¬ 
count with the towns all their actually paid expenses 
of postages, brokerages, and stamps on remittances ; 
with the cost of advertisements, and other similar 
small expenses necessary to the due performance of 
their obligations under the loan. 

The length to which this report has already una¬ 
voidably extended in the hope of making it fully in¬ 
telligible, must restrain me from entering upon any 
analysis of all the various articles of these conven¬ 
tions. Nor is it necessary that I should, as they will 
better speak for themselves when read, each in its own 


27 


details. But some general remarks at this critical 
point of the subject, may not only aid in placing it in 
its true light, but seem due to the highly delicate and 
important nature of the trust confided to my sole re¬ 
sponsibility whilst here in Europe. 

On a full examination of the articles, I saw noth¬ 
ing in any of them the means of complying with 
which were not possessed, or, as it seemed to me, 
might not be acquired, by the towns. It is as certain 
that some of them, in their present structure and 
meaning, did not please me. To the part that sub¬ 
jects the town to the payment of interest before they 
will have been in the actual enjoyment of the princi¬ 
pal by a short interval, I felt objections. Equally 
did I disapprove of the part which will throw a loss 
upon the towns from the Messieurs Crommelins re¬ 
taining 2 1-2 percent, interest for the six months in¬ 
terest that will be due on 3,750,000 guilders from the 
first of July, 1830, to the first of January, 1831, 
whilst interest will also be running in the United 
States from the former period. I had prepared my¬ 
self to urge and insist upon these objections. It will 
be seen that at the outset, viz. in my letter of the 29th 
of September, I had expressly stated that interest was 
not to commence until the day of paying the first in¬ 
stalment ; by which I had assuredly meant, when the 
towns would have the benefit of the payment; nor 
had I contemplated their being at any other loss un¬ 
der this head. But on receiving their letter of the 
20th of October, with their explanatory remarks, I 
did not believe that they would recede from their 
point in this particular. It will be observed in how 


28 


unequivocal a manner they take it, assigning their 
reasons. 1 should have accounted it wholly unwise, 
as well as unjustifiable in me, to have allowed the 
negotiation to break off on such a point; and near¬ 
ly as much so to have thrown myself upon the 
hazards of a prolonged and argumentative corres¬ 
pondence in attempting to drive them from it, and 
with no rational hope of ultimate success. In the 
actual posture in which the fate of the loan stood, 
I judged it to be my true course to go on, looking 
steadfastly at broad results, and at them only, as 
long as I kept within the limit of the law. I did not 
think it belonged to any of the great interests that 
I had in charge, to let the negotiation be hinging 
upon small particulars. Prejudice and opposition 
had assailed it in London, and the apprehension that 
both might find their way to Holland, working their 
effect there too, warned me to be prompt. The cause 
I was entrusted with, however solid its foundations, 
with the intelligent and dispassionate who would ex¬ 
amine into them, might have been overset by the 
whispers of ill-disposed persons in a single hour at 
Amsterdam. Such, as was well known to me, was 
its perilous predicament. 

I could also have wished to have altered the part 
which stipulates for the advancement of the entire 
loan in such early instalments, viz. one on the first of 
January, the remainder on the first of July. My cor¬ 
respondence will show my intention of postponing 
them at least until April and October, if I could not 
obtain longer intervals, for which at first I had con¬ 
tended. But 1 did not consider this point either, as 


29 


at all vital; and I believed that it would be in vain to 
press it, for when at Amsterdam in the summer, I 
perceived it to be one of which my correspondents 
were tenacious. They wanted to pay soon, that they 
might receive soon. 

The stipulation that the borrowers are to be at all 
the risk in the transmission of bills, is universal in 
similar cases. Equally so, I am informed, is that by 
which the lenders are to retain out of the loan enough 
to cover the first dividends of interest, and all the 
commissions and expenses enumerated, as incident to 
the creation of the loan. 

The engagement to pay 4 1-2 per cent, for the 
charges enumerated in the fourth article of the pri¬ 
vate convention, whilst the private subscribers have 
also a bonus of 4 per cent., and the Messieurs Crom- 
melins a further commission of one per cent, on pay¬ 
ments of interest, and the same on the reimburse¬ 
ments of the principal, may, in the aggregate, seem 
high. I should probably have thought so myself on 
first arriving in Europe to negotiate this loan ; but 
fuller inquiries and experience, lead me to think dif¬ 
ferently. The Messieurs Crommelins in their letter 
of the 20th of October, speak of all these terms and 
charges as “ reasonable and moderate. 5 ’ I am free 
to confess that they do not strike me, all things con¬ 
sidered, as the reverse. Even the new five per cent, 
loan of the Russian government, negotiated in Am¬ 
sterdam in the summer, and a favorite stock in that 
market, is supposed to have yielded but about 94. A 
loan of the Austrian government, of twenty-five mil¬ 
lions of florins, (at 4 percent.) taken since the treaty of 


30 


Adrianople, in September, by certain banking-houses 
in Vienna,* is said, and by many believed, to have 
been obtained by the contractors, at 77, although the 
newspapers sometimes state it at 86, and sometimes 
at 84. I have been informed that a five per cent, loan 
obtained by the Prussian government in this market 
a few years ago, and now in couse of reimburse¬ 
ment, was taken at 78. I do not give these facts con¬ 
fidently, though I have taken pains to ascertain some 
of them. Irresponsible governments are under no ob¬ 
ligation to blazon what they may sometimes choose 
to give in the shape of bonuses, commissions, or 
other doceurs, on the creation of loans. The great 
money-dealers know it, and it is often of their myste¬ 
ry that others should not. The loan that I was 
striving to effect was no favorite ; was new in all its 
points abroad ; was of a nature which, far from mov¬ 
ing by its own attractions, had, so to speak, to be 
forced onward, step by step, by anxious efforts ; re¬ 
quiring long, almost endless explanations, as it was 
successively laid before merchant after merchant, 
banker after banker, capitalist after capitalist. Some¬ 
thing was due to capitalists of high standing like the 
Messieurs Cromelins, who, with good intelligence 1 
admit, but wfith something of boldness and liberality 
too, would consent to become the sponsors of such an 
enterprise, after the reception it had met with from 
all in London, and from all, save themselves, in Am¬ 
sterdam. They seemed the only house of high name 
not unwilling to trust to American faith and resources* 
as both were concentered in a portion of territory un- 

# Those of Rothschild, Geymuller, Arnstein and Sina. 


31 


tier the express jurisdiction and fostering care of the 
government of the United States ; and as both were 
identified with this loan. The very bankers of that go¬ 
vernment in London, had silently turned away from it 
at six per cent, though under an offer of co-operation 
with others; thus, by their high example, unavoida¬ 
bly frightening away others from an operation which 
it was seen they would not in any way touch. If 
there had been loans negotiated upon better terms, 
I was well advised that many had been done upon 
terms far less favorable. I saw T that all the ex¬ 
penses summed up—bonus, commissions, charges, 
every thing—including loss of interest to the towns 
in the beginning, would not when diffused over the 
whole period that the loan was to run, amount to 
more than one half per cent, per annum, if to as 
much; thus making the entire loan, in effect, one of 
five and a half per cent, per annum. Looking at the 
act of Congress of the 24th of May, 1828, I there 
read, that all these expenses might well have been 
justified, if the loan could not otherwise have been 
obtained, even under the creation of a six per cent, 
stock; for the act, besides authorizing six per cent., 
explicitly declares that all the expenses attending the 
loan, may be paid for out of the proceeds of it. 

Weighing all these considerations, I did not waver 
in coming to the conclusion. I determined to accept 
the conventions. I thought that it would be danger¬ 
ous to lose time by either the reality or the show of 
hesitation. Secondary objections upon which as a 
controvertist I might have fastened, disappeared be¬ 
fore the paramount ends which I believed the loan, if 




accomplished, would secure. My decision was an¬ 
nounced in my letter (No 27 ,) of the 23d of Octo¬ 
ber. I followed it up with another, (No. 28 J trans¬ 
mitting to the Messieurs Crommelins all the certifi¬ 
cates, with a power of attorney (F) to themselves, 
to fill up the necessary blanks, according to the terms 
of the conventions. This step was indispensable to 
prevent a pause in the negotiation, and it will be per¬ 
ceived that the proper guards were introduced into 
the power. Their letter of October the 27th, (No. 
29,) was the one which I next received. I hope that 
I do not affirm too much of the contents of this let¬ 
ter when I say, that they fully confirmed the expe¬ 
diency of my having acted with promptitude and 
decision upon the conventions, just as they were; 
for it appeared that the money market at Amsterdam 
was taking an unfavorable turn. So much was this 
the case that my correspondents intimated apprehen¬ 
sions, and their high reputation was the pledge with 
me, that they would have intimated none which they 
did not feel, that the subscription would scarcely suc¬ 
ceed, unless l would consent to increase the bonus; 
and they plainly sounded me as to a postponement 
of the whole matter until the spring, or at all events 
until after new year. I would not consent (No. 30,) 
to any increase of the bonus, and I unequivocally put 
aside the idea of postponement. I should have con¬ 
sidered the least postponement as equivalent to defeat, 
for from their letter it also appeared that actual oppo¬ 
sition to the loan at Amsterdam was kept under only 
by keeping the subscription secret; and, truly, such 
a thing could not long have remained a secret. Hav- 


33 


ing taken my stand upon the terms as already arrang¬ 
ed by the conventions, it was my purpose to main¬ 
tain it. My correspondents seeing this, went on ra¬ 
pidly and in good faith with the experiment of dis¬ 
posing of the stock upon those terms. Successive 
letters continued to pass between us, numbered from 
31 to 42, their number 35 informing me that the pri¬ 
vate subscription had been closed, and that all the 
stock was taken. The hope of success had, it seems, 
become faint, whilst the operation was in course of 
trial; but we fell upon a good moment; the money 
market took another turn—it was a turn in our favor—■ 
and all ended well. Their number 39 announced 
the king’s consent to our conventions. Anxious to 
bring this Report to a close, I do not stop to recapitu¬ 
late the matter of the other letters, begging leave to 
refer to them in the series as they are stated. I can¬ 
not however avoid saying, that of the reports alluded 
to in their number 41, calculated to destroy the pub¬ 
lic subscription to the stock, held in Amsterdam on 
the 20th instant, one set came from Mr. Willink; 
and the other, as I believe, from the Messieurs Hopes, 
the intimate correspondents of the Messieurs Barings. 
A regret will be felt, that the effect of these reports, 
if they have any, would be to lessen the value of the 
stock in the hands of the Messieurs Crommelins and 
others to whom it now belongs. 

Upon the whole result of the negotiation, I venture 
to offer to the towns my respectful and cordial con¬ 
gratulations. It opens to them new and auspicious 
prospects. They have had difficulties to make head 
against, but the day of being baffled by them seems 
5 


31 


now passed. They have labored under unfounded 
suspicions, which will cease to circulate. Even in 
foreign atmospheres these will die away, under the 
influence of the event that 1 announce. Above all, I 
regard the event in connexion with its happy influence 
upon the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. It puts an 
efficient hand to the progress of that great work ; so 
eminently national in its final aim, and so immediate¬ 
ly precious to the towns. By giving activity to the 
other subscriptions, it places the company in certain 
possession of three millions and a half of dollars, 
thereby putting the seal to the full completion of the 
work as far as Cumberland. I speak with the more 
confidence on this head, for, admitting that this sum 
should fall short in any inconsiderable amount of the 
sum required to carry it to that point, I am at present 
in the confident belief that the towns may obtain in 
Europe, should they desire it, the necessary balance ; 
and this without the obstacles, in a second attempt, 
that have encompassed on all sides the first. Than 
the individual to whom this first attempt was confid¬ 
ed, they will never find a servant more zealous or 
more faithful; but I rejoice to think that another may 
find his way more smooth. By the punctual fulfil¬ 
ment of their obligations under the loan just made, 
they will have an opportunity of establishing in Am¬ 
sterdam, if not elsewhere, a credit for themselves ; a 
credit upon the basis of their own resources and their 
own faith—a credit that will hereafter look down all 
injurious misconceptions. That they will so fulfil 
their obligations, I have passed in all ways the high¬ 
est pledges, dwelling upon their honor with no less 


35 


unbounded assurances than I have vouched for the 
ample sufficiency of their means. These pledges 
have sprung from the double feeling of pride and du¬ 
ty in me towards the towns, and have been given 
with an earnestness and solemnity proportioned to the 
publicity of the theatre of my exertions in their be¬ 
half. Nor do I for an instant doubt, but that they 
will all be scrupulously redeemed. 

The conventions as formally signed and executed 
on each side, I will transmit as soon as received from 
Holland. I am promised them this week. As they 
will conform to the statements I have made, I do not 
think it necessary to lose, by waiting longer for them, 
the opportunity of forwarding this Report by the 
packet that will sail from Liverpool to New-Yorkon 
the first of December. 

I have the honor to remain, 

With great respect, 

Your ob’t serv’t, 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Joseph Gales, Esquire, 

Mayor of the City of Washington . 






































37 


REMARKS 

Explanatory of the Loan of a Million and a half of 
Dollars,proposed to he raised by the City of Wash¬ 
ington and the Towns of Georgetown and Alexan¬ 
dria , under an Act of the Congress of the United 
States . [ This is the paper referred to, page 6, ante , 
as having been sent by Mr . Rush to the towns with 
his communication of the 8 th of September .] 

•The loan is wanted to meet the subscriptions of the 
above towns to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. 
This is a public work in a high degree national in the 
United States of North America. It is not underta¬ 
ken by any one of the States singly, or for the bene¬ 
fit of any one of them singly ; but looks to the gene¬ 
ral advantage of the country, and immediately to that 
of several of the States that are central in their posi¬ 
tion in the Union, and amongst the most important 
for population and resources. Its great object is, to 
join in this part of the American Union, the western 
waters with those of the Atlantic Ocean ; an object 
full of importance to all commercial and other inter¬ 
course in the United Stales, and always deemed 
practicable by the best informed and most sagacious 
men of the country from General Washington’s time 
to the present; he having been the first to designate 
the line of this canal more than forty years ago. 
The advantages of this undertaking, are officially set 
forth in various reports and documents published by 



36 


order of the Congress of the United States. To re¬ 
peat them all would extend these remarks unduly, 
and be aside from their purpose. It may be merely af¬ 
firmed, that the canal by terminating at the city of 
Washington, where it will fall into the river Potomac, 
which flows into the Chesapeake Bay, which latter 
empties itself into the Atlantic, must necessarily bring 
peculiar advantages to that city, as well as to the entire 
District of Columbia. The District of Columbia is a 
portion of territory ten miles square, under the ex¬ 
clusive jurisdiction and laws of the National Con¬ 
gress, without the power of control, or any interfer¬ 
ence whatever, on the part of any of the individual 
States. Within this District stand as well the city of 
Washington as the towns of Georgetown and Alex¬ 
andria ; all three of the towns being situated on the 
banks of the Potomac. Congress has subscribed 
towards the construction of this canal one million of 
dollars. It has also in other ways taken it under its 
patronage, in a manner more ample and decided than 
it has hitherto done any other such public work. But 
that body observed, in this instance, its habitual cau¬ 
tion when about to make grants from the national 
treasury. Before it directed the secretary of the 
treasury to make, on the nation’s behalf, the above 
subscription, it caused the whole line of the proposed 
canal to be minutely surveyed by the engineers of the 
nation. Their report made at great length in 1826, 
demonstrated the practicability of the route, so as to 
place beyond doubt the safety of the undertaking. It 
demonstrated by facts and deductions not less irresist¬ 
ible, its advantages to the nation. Access may be 


had to this report, as well as to all the other official 
documents bearing in any way upon the subject. It 
is remarkable, that the line marked out by the report 
of the engineers, is the same which had been indica¬ 
ted by General Washington as the true one, as far 
back as the period stated. 

Besides its own subscription, adopted with so much 
deliberation, Congress authorized the city of Wash¬ 
ington and the towns of Georgetown and Alexandria 
to subscribe to this canal. The towns accordingly 
did subscribe, (or rather they had subscribed, the law 
giving validity to their subscriptions,) in the follow¬ 
ing proportions, viz. Washington one million of dol¬ 
lars, and the two others, two hundred and fifty thou¬ 
sand dollars each. Congress, also, by the same law, 
viz. a law of May the 24th, 1828, authorized them 
to borrow the money to meet their subscriptions. It 
is, therefore, under the full and declared sanction of 
Congress that these towns desire to borrow. They 
are under the peculiar care, as well as exclusive legal 
and political jurisdiction of Congress. Their pros¬ 
perity is bound up with that of the nation, and dear to 
the nation. This, as regards Washington, is not only 
the case on political and national grounds, but it is 
directly so, on a ground of mere pecuniary interest, 
from the fact that the nation is the proprietor of a 
large part of the real estate in this town, as well as 
of all the national buildings that have been erected 
there. It is the chosen and permanent seat of the 
government of the nation; its infant but cherished 
metropolis. With Congress as their directing and 
controling legislative body, and the President of the 


40 


United States as their local as well as national chief 
magistrate, all three of these towns feel the value 
and dignity of the protection under which they are 
placed. The very nature of their dependence, exalts 
the justice as well as the kindly attributes of this pro¬ 
tection. They feel that they are little likely to be 
neglected in their interests, and still less to be suffer¬ 
ed to fail, when such a hand supports them. On the 
sudden calamity of a fire happening three years ago 
in Alexandria, an appropriation of money was imme¬ 
diately made from the treasury, as a donation to those 
whose property had perished in the flames; an ap¬ 
plication of the national funds never made by Con¬ 
gress for such a purpose before or since, in behalf of 
any town in the Union out of this District; which is 
thus nourished by Congress with a generous bounty 
as well as by legal patronage. As bearing upon the 
authority conferred upon these towns from so high a 
source to borrow, they know, especially, how scru¬ 
pulous has ever been the good faith of the national 
government of the United States, whenever it has 
been in the slightest manner trusted to. The very 
act of authorizing them to borrow, justifies the infer¬ 
ence that Congress believed in their competence to 
pay; and the sum which they desire to borrow, was 
full within the view of the executive government of 
the Union, as will in a few moments be seen, when 
it lent its instrumentality in aid of the efforts which 
they are themselves making to obtain it. 

But, the reliance springing from these considera¬ 
tions, although of an order too commanding to be 
passed over, is far from being that alone to which the 


41 


lender has to look. Congress has provided for him 
a specific and full security. This has been done by 
the same law of the 24th of May, 1*828, already 
mentioned. By this law, certificates of stock are to 
be issued by the proper authorities of the towns, for 
the sums which they may borrow. Lists of these cer¬ 
tificates are to be deposited with the Secretary of the 
Treasury of the United States. A copy of whatever 
contract or agreement the towns may enter into for a 
loan, is also to be deposited with the Secretary of the 
Treasury. The object of such deposit is, that this 
officer, the officer at the head of the finances of the 
nation, may be accurately informed of the sums due 
to the lender. Possessed of this knowledge, it is 
made his duty, should the towns neglect to pay volun¬ 
tarily, to cause to be collected and paid into the pub¬ 
lic treasury for the use of the lender whatever sums 
are due to him, out of the proceeds of taxes that are 
to be laid for that purpose. The law contains a fur¬ 
ther and remarkable feature, illustrative of the deter¬ 
mination of Congress to throw its shield, in a manner 
the most complete, over the lender. It is this:—that 
the towns must pay into the treasury all sums due on 
the loan, interest and principal, ninety day sin advance . 
If this be not done, it becomes the duty of the Presi¬ 
dent of the United States to cause the mon eyto 
be raised, by directing a levy upon property, real and 
personal, situated within the town or towns neglecting 
so to pay in advance. Thus, not only is payment by 
the towns provided for by compulsory process of law, 
but payment beforehand, and into the national treasu¬ 
ry itself; so that the lender may be at no risk of disap 
6 


42 


pointment in receiving his dividends, on the very day 
when they fall due. And this compulsory process is 
to be under the direction not of any merely subordinate 
functionary of the law ; not of any inferior corporate 
or municipal officer; but of the chief magistrate of 
the nation. The obligation to levy the money in ad¬ 
vance, is one from which the President can be 
dispensed only on his own belief, resting on grounds 
entirely satisfactory to his judgment, that the 
towns are proceeding of their own accord to raise 
the money; and that they will have it ready at the 
proper time. In case it be not ready at the proper 
time, the President cannot be dispensed at all from 
proceeding with the levy as described. 

These are the main provisions of the law in ques¬ 
tion. For the details which it comprehends, and they 
are ample and effective, the law itself can be consult¬ 
ed. It is not easy to conceive, when the circumstan¬ 
ces that belong to the character and history of this 
law are kept in mind, how a better security could 
be provided for the lender, or how he could desire a 
better. Let him pause. Let him see what are the 
real facts. Without regard to forms, let him weigh 
the substance. These are the maxims for men of 
business. Forgetting prepossessions, should he have 
any, let him look closely at the matter, and reason 
rigorously. Let him stand upon his wariness. Let 
him carry scrutiny into his interrogatories and keen¬ 
ness into his objections, and see if his judgment can, 
after all, refuse assent. 

Here is a specific fund, pledged and set apart for 
him by this law. It consists of real and personal 


43 


estate, within the metropolis of the nation, and the 
two other towns of the same district. This estate is 
subjected to taxation, in full and adequate amount, to 
pay his debt. The Government of the United 
States is the superintending power, bound to watch 
over his rights and interests; to see that he is paid, 
and paid punctually. The security of the debt is 
made, by an unusual strength of precaution, inde¬ 
pendent of the will of those who have to pay it. 
Their estates are placed by a deed irrevocable, for 
such is the true and absolute nature of this law, into 
the hands of a trustee for that object. That trustee 
is the Government of the United States. The punc¬ 
tual payment of the interest, and the faithful reim¬ 
bursement of the principal, stand upon a clear and 
high ground of national faith. Substantially, the 
funded debt proper of the United States, stands upon 
no higher. The only effective reliance of the latter, 
apart from the moral obligation of the nation, is 
upon the proceeds of the duties upon imports and 
tonnage. In like manner, the debt of these towns is 
to be paid out of the property, real and personal, to be 
found within them ; which, for this purpose, is placed 
under the control and management of the government 
of the Union. And, surely, the moral obligation of the 
Government thus to enforce payment upon the towns, 
is not less binding than it is to see that the funded 
debt is paid. The very event that may cut off the 
revenue from imports and tonnage, by suspending or 
depressing the operations of foreign commerce, would 
be apt to enhance rather than lower the value of real 
estate in the towns ; and thus expose to less risk 


44 


the security depending upon it. Such at any rate 
has been the past experience of events of this char¬ 
acter. 

If it be asked why Congress has not at once di¬ 
rected certificates to be issued as upon the footing of 
the national or funded debt, for this loan, the replies 
are as obvious as they are deemed to be satisfactory. 

First, Congress evidently supposed that it was pro¬ 
viding a security sufficiently ample without issuing 
such certificates ; a security differing in form, but not 
inferior in effect to that on which rests the funded 
debt. Congress did not suppose that it was legislat¬ 
ing to no purpose when it passed the law of the 24th 
of May, 1828; still less that it was merely deluding 
the lender. As little can it be supposed that the law 
was intended to be of no value to the towns ; or not 
to give them full credit in the eyes of the world. It 
ought not lightly to be imagined of so grave a body, 
that it would spend its time in purporting to provide 
with elaborate care, a security for whomsoever might 
advance their money to the towns, which, after all, 
was to he no security ; that it would multiply guards 
and precautions that were to be of no avail; devolve 
duties upon the highest financial officer of the nation, 
even upon the President, that were to exist only in 
name, and prove both to the towns and to the lender, 
a nullity. Such has not been the character of the na¬ 
tional legislation of the United States, and a confi¬ 
dence is felt that no such purpose will be imputed to 
it in the present instance. Yet it will be difficult to 
escape from these unnatural inferences, unless we 
suppose the present security to be perfectly good. 


45 


Another reply is, that the money which the towns 
desire to borrow, is to be applied to a public work 
that does not belong to the nation exclusively. The 
loan cannot therefore be the object of national certifi¬ 
cates. But Congress had the power, and exercised 
it, of establishing the loan upon a ground of equally 
valid security. For the debt which the loan will 
create, the towns must in form issue their own certifi¬ 
cates. The debt however will have been created by 
the express authority of Congress, and for an object 
confessedly and largely national , although to the towns 
it is also local. Congress has an interest in the crea¬ 
tion of the debt by the towns; because the nation 
is a co-partner, the efficient and powerful co-part¬ 
ner with the towns, in the undertaking towards 
which the money is to be applied. Hence the as¬ 
surance so carefully stamped upon the whole frame 
and spirit of the law, that good faith will be kept 
with the lender Although the towns are themselves 
to issue the certificates, yet such is the sanctity with 
which Congress has invested these authentic eviden¬ 
ces of the debt, that to forge them, or any transfer of 
them, or any power of attorney purporting to author¬ 
ize a transfer, is made as highly penal as if they were 
the certificates of the funded debt proper of the 
nation. 

Thirdly, it would have been a departure from its 
usual course, had Congress directed an issue of cer¬ 
tificates from the national treasury for this debt; and 
without any good motive for the departure, but the 
contrary. The National Government has lent its 
aid heretofore to enterprises of this nature, but has 


4(5 


always deemed it best to leave to private hands the 
chief direction, ft well knows, that under public 
patronage alone, public works are not so likely to be 
conducted with full economy and advantage, as if 
private interest be superadded, the latter being a va¬ 
luable stimulant to fidelity and exertion. So, on this 
occasion, although the subscription of Congress to 
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, has been far greater 
than to any similar work ; and although it has never 
before passed a law for the security of those who might 
lend their money towards the prosecution of a public 
work of any description in the United States, it has, 
nevertheless, adhered to the principle of its policy. 
It has left to the towns themselves, the duty of repay¬ 
ing the sums they may borrow; coming in with its 
own authority only upon the contingency of their de¬ 
fault. Had Congress authorized an issue of certifi¬ 
cates directly from the treasury, or identified the debt 
with the National Government in any other form of 
simple guarantee, it is manifest that it would have 
withdrawn from the towns an operative motive for 
paying it themselves. This is what Congress did not 
mean to do. but to avoid. It meant that the towns 
should pay, knowing that they were able to pay; 
and it meant, by this powerful and constraining law, 
to make it their interest to pay of their own accord, 
and to pay in good time; rather than let their pro¬ 
perty be sold under the orders of the President of the 
United States. The very penalty suspended over 
them, will become the surest pledge of their punctu¬ 
ality. The certainty that the law will be enforced, 
will prove the best means of preventing the necessity 


47 


of enforcing it. Thus, the lender cannot fail to be 
paid; whilst the towns will be made to stand upon 
their honor, no less than their interest, in seeing that 
he is paid in the way most acceptable to himself, and 
least burdensome to them. By this course, delibe¬ 
rately adopted, Congress has with true wisdom made 
these feelings in the towns, the efficient allies of the 
public patronage, and obtained a moral bond in favor 
of the lender. 

But notwithstanding the binding enactments of this 
law of the 24th of May, 1828, it may be asked 
whether these towns have, in point of fact , the abi¬ 
lity to pay the interest upon a million and a half of 
dollars, and repay the principal. It may be said, that 
their just intentions will be admitted; but will they 
be able to fulfil them ? This is the great question. 
Here lies the stress. A further question arises, colla¬ 
teral indeed but too important to be kept out of sight 
—will they be able to pay with reasonable conveni¬ 
ence ? for if the money is to be forced from them only 
by the extremity of pressure, discontent may be the 
first consequence, and, ultimately, even resistance. 

Caution, going to its utmost length, may propound 
these questions; but they would seem to be super¬ 
fluous, considering the true nature, and only objects 
of the law, if the preceding view of it has not totally 
misconceived both ; that is, superfluous with those 
who may think the faith of the United States good. 
Moreover, what has already actually been done under 
this law, as before hinted, by the executive govern¬ 
ment of the United States, to say nothing of what 
Congress has done, might be deemed a decisive an- 


48 


swer to the questions, without offering any other. 
The late Secretary of the Treasury, under President 
Adams, addressed, in November, 1828, a letter to an 
eminent house in London, making some inquiry on 
behalf of the towns, as to the terms upon which it 
was probable that this precise sum of a million and a 
half of dollars might be borrowed by them, upon the 
faith of the very law in question . The present Se¬ 
cretary, under President Jackson, also addressed, in 
April, 1829, a letter to the same house, in which, 
speaking of the security under this law, he says, that 
“ very plenary powers” are vested by it in the Presi¬ 
dent “ to enforce payment of the taxes necessary to 
fulfil in good faith any engagement made in pur¬ 
suance thereof” The present Secretary goes on to 
state, that although it was true, that no other revenues 
than those provided under that law were considered 
to be pledged for the performance of such engage¬ 
ment, yet that it might “ be confidently expected that 
the Government would take care to fulfil its just and 
proper duties under the law , should circumstances 
arise to make it necessary” 

Now, it will be recollected that these three towns, 
contradistinguished from the towns in any of the in¬ 
dividual States of the American Union, are under the 
immediate jurisdiction and eye of the National Gov¬ 
ernment ; that they form its very seat and homestead, 
and that its officers permanently reside there. These 
officers ought not to be presumed to be ignorant of 
the size, population, and fiscal capabilities of the 
towns. Returns from them, are upon the archives 
of the Treasury Department; their proper place, as 


49 


they owe no returns or responsibility to any of the 
individual States, but only to the nation. It is seen 
then, that two successive Secretaries of the Treasury, 
under two successive administrations, have written 
such letters as the above; and, what is still more fit 
to be remarked, written them to a foreion house. 
Why, the bare inquiry made in the first, still more 
the declarations contained in the second, were but 
calculated to mislead, unless the administration in 
each case believed the towns able to pay this sum of 
a million and a half of dollars ; for it was the very 
sum which was the subject of their letters. There 
was no other or smaller sum mentioned, or thought 
of. Had they not believed the towns able to pay it, 
it would have been the unequivocal duty of each Se¬ 
cretary, far from writing as has been seen, had either 
written at all, to have put the house upon its guard; 
to have said, 1 warn you of your danger; be careful 
how you lend such a sum to these towns; they are 
about to go beyond their means; the law of May, 
1828, although it provided a security indeed, never 
contemplated the borrowing of so large a sum ; and 
if you do lend, it will be at your own risk. This is 
the language that ought to have been held, and that 
would have been held, by the organs of a Govern¬ 
ment the good faith of which is not to be impeach¬ 
ed. The design of maintaining a deceptive silence 
on this vital point, will scarcely be laid to their 
charge; and as little ought they to be suspected of 
misleading others through the want of that informa¬ 
tion which their stations implied the duty and fur- 


7 


50 


wished the opportunities of their being in possession 
of, as of any purpose to mislead. 

Connected with these acts of the Executive Gov¬ 
ernment, it must not be forgotten how entire must 
have been the reliance of Congress upon the good 
faith and prudence of the towns when it clothed them 
with power to borrow, that the power would not be 
abused. Nor must it be forgotten that the tow ns had 
actually subscribed this sum of a million and a half 
of dollars when the law passed; the law declaring 
that as well the subscription already made (which ivas 
the sum in question) should be valid and binding on 
the towns, as any that they might make afterwards. 
It is as material to make known, that a wdiole session 
of Congress has been held since the towns determin¬ 
ed to borrow the sum under discussion, and since the 
first Secretary of the Treasury wrote, on their express 
behalf, the letter of inquiry that has been stated. 
Now, Congress would indubitably have interposed 
its controling authority to revoke as well their 
subscription as their determination, to borrow, had it 
supposed the sum too large; and indubitably Con¬ 
gress also has thus lent its tacit but no less full and 
solemn sanction to that determination. Had it been 
a rash or unwarrantable determination, to have can¬ 
celled it would have been an imperious duty, from 
which the justice of Congress could not have been 
discharged. These towns are its children, fostered by 
its kindness on the one hand, and on the other ame¬ 
nable to its control Nothing, therefore, is more 
clear, than that if they have transcended their means, 
both branches of the Government of the Union, le- 


51 


gislative and executive, have made themselves parties 
not indeed to intentional deceptions, which no one 
will impute to them, but at least to errors and omis¬ 
sions so extraordinary as to have incurred a grave re¬ 
sponsibility to the lender. But there is not the slight¬ 
est ground on which to rest the imputation of errors 
and omissions that would, truly, have been so extra¬ 
ordinary and unaccountable; so utterly at war with 
every idea of public vigilance and care. On the con¬ 
trary, this combined sanction simultaneously flowing 
in the different ways that have been shown from the 
supreme legislative power and executive functionaries 
of the land, ought to put the mind at rest as to the 
perfect competence of the towns to fulfil the engage¬ 
ments which they now desire to contract. It is cal¬ 
culated to produce as high a moral conviction as the 
mind can feel. 

But the question of their ability to pay, shall not 
be left here. Conclusive as may seem the foregoing 
considerations, the task of establishing the point shall 
be more fully performed. The scrutiny shall take 
place on other grounds. The visible shall be added 
to the moral proof. Facts and figures shall complete 
the demonstration. 

The City of Washington is computed to contain a 
population of eighteen or twenty thousand persons. 
Let eighteen thousand be taken as the number. The 
population of Georgetown is computed at between 
seven and eight thousand, and that of Alexandria at 
between eight and nine thousand. Let Washington 
be selected as the subject of our calculations. It is 
believed that the present taxation to which this town 


5 2 


is subject, amounts to from thirty to forty thousand 
dollars a year. A debt of a million of dollars, sup¬ 
posing that it was contracted at the highest rate of 
interest that the law allows, viz. six per cent, would 
create, if no other resources existed for paying the 
interest, a necessity for raising by additional taxation, 
sixty thousand dollars. This would make in the 
whole from ninety to one hundred thousand dollars a 
year to be raised by taxation. Let it be said one 
hundred thousand. The question that presents itself 
is, whether this is an amount of taxation too great for 
this population of eighteen thousand to bear ; to bear 
with ease, and to bear without murmuring. 

The question must be answered by fair reasoning 
upon analogous facts. Nor will any elaborate statis¬ 
tical researches become necessary. A few simple 
statements are all that need be given. One hundred 
thousand dollars apportioned among a population of 
eighteen thousand, will give less than six dollars to 
each person Let us take full six, as the sum. The 
taxes raised in England apportioned in this way, throw 
about twelve dollars upon each person. This does 
not include the poor-rates, nor various other parish 
taxes, nor tithes. In Holland, the amount so thrown 
upon each person, is about nine dollars. In France 
it is lower than in Holland, and amounts to about 
seven dollars. But it belongs essentially to the calcu¬ 
lation to remark, that whilst this is the rough average 
as applied to the whole country at large in each of 
the cases, and rather a low average, a town popula¬ 
tion almost universally pays more in taxes, sometimes 
greatly more, in proportion to its numbers, and is able 


53 


to pay more, than a rural population ; because trans¬ 
fers of every kind as well as consumption are propor- 
tionably far greater in towns than in the country, and 
because more money circulates in them. It is believ¬ 
ed that there are towns in the individual States of the 
American Union in which when the State taxes come 
to be added to the county and municipal taxes of all 
kinds, the aggregate will be found to be more than 
six dollars to each inhabitant, aside from the indirect 
taxation which every citizen of the United States sus¬ 
tains in a greater or less degree as his share of the im¬ 
post. The average amount per head, taking the 
whole extent of the United States from one end to the 
other, is to be sure much below this sum ; less proba¬ 
bly than one half of it. The impost is the only Uni¬ 
ted States tax at present existing ; that is, the Gene¬ 
ral Government of the Union imposes no direct tax 
or duty of excise, or any other tax or duty of any 
kind, at the present period. It follows that Washing¬ 
ton has no such taxes to pay. Nor is the town sub¬ 
ject to taxes of any description imposed by any of 
the individual States. It has, in short, nothing but 
its own mere local taxes to pay. Although contain¬ 
ing no persons of large capital, this town is not want¬ 
ing in persons of moderate property, and it contains a 
great many families whose incomes are certain, be¬ 
cause derived from the Government. These incomes 
though separately small, are not inconsiderable in the 
aggregate. The annual expenditure of the National 
Government within the District of Columbia, is com¬ 
puted at not less, on all accounts, than a million of 
dollars. The chief expenditure for the civil list is 


54 


there; the foreign ministers, as well as those of the 
Government of the United States, reside there; and 
within its limits, are a naval arsenal and building 
yard, with barracks for the marine corps and various 
other public establishments and edifices such as never 
fail to grow up in the vicinity of a government. Of 
the money expended on all these accounts, a full pro¬ 
portion is diffused throughout all classes of the popu¬ 
lation of Washington. It may, therefore, be safely 
said of this town, that it is as well able to bear the 
amount of taxation assumed, and to bear it with full 
convenience, as towns generally of the same size. 
The very character of its population, whilst it leads 
to less accumulation of capital in individual hands, 
than is seen in commercial cities, renders it less liable 
to the total vicissitudes and bankruptcies that some¬ 
times visit portions of the inhabitants of such cities. 
That it would bear the increased taxation with cheer¬ 
fulness, although it would form a large addition to the 
present amount, may be affirmed with equal safety; 
for it will have been imposed not arbitrarily, or for 
oppressive or useless ends, but at the spontaneous and 
earnest desire of the inhabitants themselves, who seek 
through it benefits which, in their judgments, are clear 
and demonstrable. The town in making its subscrip¬ 
tion to the Canal, did it with a zeal and unanimity 
resulting from an intelligent conviction of the great 
importance of the work to the best interests of the 
town; and with a well understood fore-knowledge 
of the increased amount of taxation to which the 
measure would give rise. Already have preparatory 
steps been taken, it is believed by all the towns, to 


meet these new pecuniary obligations that will be de¬ 
volved upon them. 

So far as to the ability of Washington to pay punc¬ 
tually the interest upon the proposed loan of a million 
of dollars. Unless facts hitherto applicable in simi¬ 
lar cases are to be overlooked, this ability is not to be 
denied and need not be enlarged upon. 

Next, as to repayment of the principal. The pre¬ 
sent assessed value of real estate within this town, 
exceeds five millions of dollars. This assessment is 
believed to be low, and personal property is not inclu¬ 
ded in it. Nor does it, of course, include the real 
estate of the nation situated in the town, which is 
not liable to taxation. The public edifices of the na¬ 
tion which are there, some of which are upon a very 
large scale, have also been extremely costly; the ca¬ 
pital of itself, or building in which both houses of 
Congress assemble, having cost, it is believed, in the 
whole, more than two millions of dollars. Hence, 
having regard merely to the above assessment, as both 
the personal and real property of all the inhabitants 
within the town will be bound for the debt, principal 
as well as interest, and may be levied upon under 
the law of the 24th May, 1828, to make the debt in 
all parts good, it is plain, that the compulsion of the 
law being resorted to, the principal might, even at 
this day, be raised; and doubtless would be raised by 
compulsion, no matter at what inconvenience to the 
inhabitants, if good faith required it. For, as has 
already been seen, repayment is not made to depend 
upon the convenience or the will of the inhabitants. 
A higher power, the Government of the nation, is the 


5(5 


sentinel over them ; the efficient and assured guardian 
of the creditor’s rights. It is to this power, not to 
the City of Washington, upright as are believed to be 
its intentions and perfect its ability, that the execu¬ 
tion of the law is confided ; and, as the officer now 
at the head of the Treasury has said, it may be confi¬ 
dently expected that the law will be executed if ne¬ 
cessary ; in other words, if the town does not pay 
voluntarily. If, contrary to all probability after what 
has been stated, its execution should threaten to press 
so sorely upon the town, as to startle the humanity of 
the Government, there is one way, and only one, in 
which it might be absolved from its imperative duty 
of going on. That would be —to pay the debt itself. 
It is impossible that the Government could answ er 
to the creditor in any other w ay; truly impossible. 

All this however is exhibiting the very w 7 orst as¬ 
pect of the subject for Washington, in pursuing the 
topic in hand. Other and more reasonable views 
naturally offer themselves. It is not contemplated 
that the principal of the proposed loan should be im¬ 
mediately repaid ; but, on the contrary, that it should 
run on to a period of perhaps twenty or thirty years. 
Probably also there would be some arrangement for 
reimbursing it gradually. The town is increasing 
fast in population and in business. Every year it is 
marked by the erection of new dwelling houses and 
other indications of substantial improvement. Within 
the last fifteen years it has fully doubled its popula¬ 
tion. There is no just ground for supposing that its 
future increase will not equal the past; and it will be 
advancing henceforth upon the broader basis of 


57 


numbers and prosperity which it has now acquired. 
It is believed that no town in the United States south 
of Baltimore, has risen as fast as Washington within 
the number of yearsjust stated. When therefore the 
time for repaying the principal of this debt arrives, 
it may reasonably be inferred that the town will have 
reached a higher point of ability for repaying it con¬ 
veniently, supposing that the whole sum should be 
paid in gross. This belief is due in common justice 
to the town. As it has gained its present size by 
annual and steady growth since the first year of its 
recent foundation, it ought not to be assumed that 
its growth will suddenly stop. 

What has been said of the ability of Washington 
to pay, will apply with equal if not greater force to 
Alexandria and Georgetown. The present assessed 
value of property in the former town amounts to 
more than two millions and a half of dollars ; and 
in the latter to more than tw r o millions and a half 
also. Consequently, the sum which these tw r o towns 
desire to borrow, two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars each, bears a less proportion to their assess¬ 
ments than the sum desired by Washington, as well 
as to their population. The assessment of the en¬ 
tire District of Columbia is fifteen millions of dollars; 
which is also considered low. Georgetown stands 
at the head of ship navigation on the Potomac. It is 
extremely well situated for home trade, and main¬ 
tains foreign commerce. Alexandria does the same. 

The question of the ability of the towns to pay has, 
in the preceding remarks, been considered on the 
footing of their positive existing ability, should things 
8 


58 


go on upon their present basis, without the addition 
of the canal. The necessary prudence of a capitalist 
inclined to lend money to them, would call in the 
first instance for the demonstration upon this footing; 
and it is conceived to have been afforded. That the 
fortunes of the towns must advance in all ways when 
the canal is made, may, without any hazard, be as¬ 
serted ; and that it will be made, is as confidently 
believed. The subscription of a million of dollars 
towards it by the Congress of the nation, ought to 
go far in confirming this belief. It imports the con¬ 
viction of that high body that the work would suc¬ 
ceed ; since a contrary supposition would lay it open 
to the imputation of misapplying the public funds. 
The State of Maryland, by its Legislature, has also 
subscribed towards it, five hundred thousand 
dollars, a large part of the line of the canal pass¬ 
ing through the territory of that State. More than 
six hundred thousand dollars have already been 
subscribed by private citizens, whose subscriptions it 
may be added have been paid with great punctuality. 
The list of their names may be seen, if desired ; and 
will be found by those w ho may seek any knowledge 
of them, to embrace the intelligence and respectabil¬ 
ity of that quarter of the community; men of pru¬ 
dent lives, and little apt to embark their means or 
their reputation in ill-considered projects. These are 
facts affording a good guarantee for the wisdom of 
the plan, and an encouraging omen of its success. 
The line of the canal is divided into three sections, 
termed the eastern, the middle, and the western. 
The eastern section commences at Washington and 


59 


extends to Cumberland in the State of Maryland, a 
distance of one hundred and eighty-five miles, where 
it reaches a country remarkable for coal mines, yield¬ 
ing that fuel in the utmost abundance, of the best 
quality, and in the easiest way, from the sides of 
hills, instead of from a depth below the surface. 
The middle section, which although the shortest will 
probably be the most difficult to construct, compre¬ 
hends a distance of 70 miles, and the western sec¬ 
tion of 85 miles. This last section terminates at 
Pittsburg in the State of Pennsylvania, where the 
canal will fall into the river Ohio, whose waters flow 
into the Mississippi; the latter in its turn falling into 
the gulf of Mexico and the ocean. The whole line 
of the canal will be 341 miles. But in the charter 
of incorporation it is stipulated, that the first moneys 
raised shall be applied towards digging and complet¬ 
ing the eastern section, before the work is commenced 
upon either of the other sections. The eastern section 
being finished, a canal of great value, so far, will be 
the result. Hence the forecast of this clause in the 
charter. It will guard those who first embark their 
money in the enterprise from danger of loss, admit¬ 
ting that it should not advance to completion in its 
final purpose of uniting the waters of the Ohio and 
and Mississippi with those of the Chesapeake. 

That the eastern section will be completed, the 
three towns do not doubt. The most sober estimates 
have shown, not conjectural estimates, but estimates 
founded upon contracts ready to be entered into, 
that the entire line of this section can be completed 
for less than four millions and a half of dollars. 


60 


Forty-six miles of the distance are under actual con¬ 
tract, and the work is proceeding daily with upwards 
of two thousand laborers. The corner* stone of the 
first Lock having been laid on the 29th of last May, 
President Jackson, now just entering upon his 
Presidential career, attended the ceremony, and avail¬ 
ed himself of so imposing an occasion to express to 
the assembled concourse present, his convictions of 

the PUBLIC IMPORTANCE OF THIS GREAT WORK; THE 
DEEP INTEREST THAT HE FELT IN IT ; AND THE SA¬ 
TISFACTION WITH WHICH HE CONTEMPLATED THE 
PROOFS THAT WERE ON EVERY HAND EXHIBITED OF 

its successful progress. It is computed that the 
whole of the eastern section will be done in less than 
four years. Of the sum required for it, more than 
three millions and a half of dollars have already 
been subscribed; and the company after the payment 
of all expenses hitherto incurred, had a balance of 
cash on hand on the 30th of last May amounting to 
three hundred and fifty-four thousand dollars. This 
fact is derived from their official report to the stock¬ 
holders made on that date, including the government 
of the United States amongst them. It may be ad¬ 
ded, that when the canal goes into operation for 
shorter distances than the entire eastern section on 
the line of that section, and this will be the case 
from the nature of the work, it will still bring with 
it benefits to the three towns, by facilitating the trans¬ 
portation of produce, more or less, to their markets. 
But when the eastern section in its full length shall 
have been made, the sphere of these benefits will be 
greatly widened, by opening to their markets the va~ 




61 


rious and abundant produce, agricultural and other, 
of some of the most fertile portions ol the States of 
\ irginia, Maryland, and even Pennsylvania, through 
or near to which the line of the canal will then run. 
Fhe coal from Cumberland, must, ol itself, prove to 
the towns a rich and unfailing source of prosperity. 
Calculations made on no overstrained data show, 
that the rate at which they will be supplied with this 
article when descending the canal, compared with 
the prices they now pay for it when received by sea, 
or otherwise from distant places, will produce an 
annual saving to them little short of three hundred 
thousand dollars. It is easy to see that a tax upon 
this article ol less than one half the amount thus 
saved, an article of indispensable supply, and which 
therefore must come to the towns, would;, inde¬ 
pendent of all other resources, more than pay the 
interest upon the sum which they desire to borrow. 
What constitute the great fountains of English wealth 
and power ? All answer, her coal and iron. 

With such prospects before them, why may not 
these towns borrow this sum, or what fears need any 
capitalist have in advancing it to them, at a fair inter¬ 
est ? That they are able to pay it at the present 
time, was the unquestionable belief of Congress ; or 
the solemn law already remarked upon, would not 
have been passed; any more than their determination 
to borrow it, or their very subscription of the sum, 
both which w 7 ere fully known to that body, been al¬ 
lowed to pass unrevoked. That they are able to pay 
it at the present time, was the unquestionable belief 
of two successive Secretaries of the Treasury : or 



62 


the letters from them which have been cited, would 
not have been written. That they are able to pay it 
at the present time, has been seen from the positive 
facts of their population and property. Finally, that 
they would be made to pay it at the present time, if 
we can suppose that there would be any hesitation 
on their own part when their interest, their honor, 
and their pride would be so highly at stake, ought 
not to be doubted, when it is known that the Govern¬ 
ment of the nation stands by, with the arm of justice 
and coercion uplifted over them. If all this be true 
of their present ability, how does the imagined heavi¬ 
ness of the debt disappear, when, under the reasona¬ 
ble anticipations that have been stated, the lapse of a 
few years shall have carried these towns onward in 
their growth, and augmented all their resources! 
Debt to be sure is always more or less burdensome ; 
but when contracted for an object that is sanctioned 
by wisdom and upheld by authority, and when the 
ability to meet it is undoubted, the burden ceases to 
be heavy, and is not only borne, but borne with cheer¬ 
fulness. 

It may not be irrelevant to say a few words, inci¬ 
dentally, of the New-York canal. This canal is 363 
miles in length. It connects the waters of Lake 
Erie with those of the river Hudson, which flows into 
the Atlantic. The debt contracted in making it, in 
connexion with the Champlain Canal, was upwards 
of seven millions of dollars. It was finished in its 
whole length in about seven years. The income from 
these canals, chiefly from tolls, amounted in 1828, to 
twelve hundred thousand dollars. This income, after 


63 


paying the interest on the canal debt, the salaries of 
all the officers employed on the canals, and the ex¬ 
penses of keeping the works in repair, left a clear 
surplus of more than four hundred thousand dollars. 
This surplus could not be made available towards the 
reduction of the canal debt only because the period 
of its redemption had not arrived, that period being 
still remote. There is no good reason for supposing 
that the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal will not in good 
time prove as valuable. It will flow through coun¬ 
tries, to say the least, not inferior in extent and ferti¬ 
lity ; bind together States and Territories not less po¬ 
pulous ; enhance in a degree not secondary the value 
of great bodies of land and the produce of it; devel- 
ope in all ways as many and as enriching sources of 
industry. It has been undertaken under auspices not 
less high ; planned with not less deliberation, and 
approved and participated in by men whose intelli¬ 
gence, whose characters, and whose position in socie¬ 
ty, are not inferior guarantees for safe, honorable and 
profitable results. It so happens also, that the same 
engineer who so successfully superintended the con¬ 
struction of the one, is now actually engaged in su¬ 
perintending the construction of the other. Nor is it 
a fact without interest, and therefore merits to be 
brought into view, that with such industry, economy, 
and good success in all respects, have the President 
and Directors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal con¬ 
ducted the work so far, that they were all re-elected, 
it is believed by an unanimous vote, at an annual 
meeting of the stockholders in June last; the United 
States being represented at the meeting, by their Se¬ 
cretary of the Treasury. 


64 


It may be proper to subjoin, that the amount of 
canal stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal which 
will belong to the towns in virtue of their subscription 
of a milli »n and a half of dollars, will be pledged if 
desired, to whomsoever may advance them this sum ; 
as a security over and above that which has been 
provided by Congress. All dividends upon the shares 
owned by the towns, will also be set apart by them 
as a fund to be exclusively and constantly applied, in 
aid of their other resources, towards payments under 
the loan. 

These remarks will here be brought to a close. 
They have been made to elucidate the genuine cha¬ 
racter of the loan wanted by the three towns. If 
there be any points upon which they have not been 
intelligible or satisfactory, further inquiry is invited, 
that further explanations may be given. They have 
been abridged from the fear of being tedious, and be¬ 
cause the laws or documents upon which their state¬ 
ments are founded, can all be examined at large, if 
desired. A safer object of investment than the loan 
proposes, or one promising more advantage to the 
capitalist, it is believed cannot be found. Let it 
be investigated, thoroughly, under all its aspects. 
There are no concealments belonging to it. Public 
laws and public documents, authenticate its claims 
to confidence and approbation. Upon none other 
does it rest. Public opinion in Europe, has, very 
naturally, become sensitive under any proposal for 
distant investments, from the heavy losses that have 
of late years resulted from them. But a proper dis¬ 
crimination will draw a line between doubtful or 


65 


visionary enterprises, and those conceived in good 
judgment and sustained by good authority. It will 
perceive that the present loan is not sought upon any 
basis of mere individual gain or private speculation. 
It is emphatically to a national enterprise that it 
looks; and one of which a nation is the great pa¬ 
tron. The entire transaction is under the special and 
close guardianship of the Government of the United 
States. It is at the public treasury at Washington, 
that the agreement for the loan is to be recorded; 
it is at the public treasury at Washington that the 
payments under the loan are to be made; the same 
place where payments due on the funded debt pro¬ 
per of the nation, are made. It is through the in¬ 
strumentality of the public treasury at Washington, 
that efficacy is to be given to that law of the na¬ 
tion which is to compel payment upon the towns, 
should they be guilty of default themselves. The 
nation is fully blended, step by step, with the 
whole operation; its faith substantially interposed. 
The lender cannot lose. It is impossible. For, 
what nation is it that has consented, and for the 
first time in any similar case, to become his trustee ? 
A nation of premature formation, or doubtful exist¬ 
ence ! Far otherwise. It is a nation that has stead¬ 
ily gone along in its prosperous career of half a cen¬ 
tury ; its institutions settled ; its revenues ample and 
secure ; its public debt rapidly diminishing; its ex¬ 
penditures economical and carefully guarded ; its in¬ 
ternal tranquillity perfect; its policy and genius pa¬ 
cific, and its position upon the globe, a shield against 
wars; its public faith always scrupulously kept: slow 
9 


66 


to plight that faith under any form, because know¬ 
ing its correspondent obligations ;—a nation advanc¬ 
ing in power as in character, and that has stood firm 
for the half century of its existence when the go¬ 
vernments of Europe, (that of the country from which 
it is proud to have sprung almost alone excepted ,) 
have been shifting in their purposes or shaken to their 
centre ! When such a nation is seen to connect itself 
intimately with the purpose of a loan in the various, 
deliberate, and unequivocal ways that have been 
shown,—that the lender will receive his money punc¬ 
tually, with whatever fair gain the agreement for 
the loan may imply, may be considered as absolutely 
certain. 

RICHARD RUSH. 


London, August, 1829, 

32 Charlotte Street , 

Portland Place. 


DOCUMENTS 


Accompanying the Report of the Hon. Richard Rush, of 
November 8, 1829. 

No. 1. 

From Mr. Rush to the Messieurs Barings informing them of his arrival. 

Londojt, June 5, 1829-7 
0 Osnaburg Street , Regent's Park. 3 

Gentlemen : 

Objects of business having brought me to Europe, I com¬ 
bine with them, at the request of the City of Washington 
and the towns of Alexandria and Georgetown, the duty of 
attending to that of the loan of a million and a half of dol¬ 
lars, as made known in my letters to your house from the 
Treasury Department of the United States, of the 24th 
and 25th of last November. Referring to those letters ; 
to your answer to them of the 13th of January, and to the 
acknowledgment of the receipt of the latter by Mr. Ing¬ 
ham, the present head of the Treasury Department, I now 
beg leave to enclose a letter upon the subject from Mr. 
Ingham, dated the 20th of April. It will be seen that the 
government of the United States continues to connect it¬ 
self with this loan, as well on the ground of the national 
subscription to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, as on ac¬ 
count of the plenary powers with which Congress has in¬ 
vested the President for the purpose of enforcing upon 
these towns the observance of good faith in fulfilling what¬ 
ever engagements they may enter into in pursuance of the 
act of Congress empowering them to make the loan. I also 
beg leave to enclose the copy of a paper furnished me by 
the Secretary of State, bearing upon the business in hand. 
It need scarcely be added, that I have the requisite author¬ 
ity from the towns to act for them in all things in relation 
to the loan in question. 

I shall be happy to wait upon you at any time and place 
you may have the goodness to appoint, or to receive at my 
lodgings any member of your establishment who may favor 
me with a call, as may be most convenient. 

I have the honor to remain with great respect, 
Your obedient servant. 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Messieurs Baring , Brothers and Company . 


68 


A 

Enclosure to No. 1. 

(Copy) 

Treasury Department., 20th April, 1829. 

Gentlemen : 

The corporations of the city of Washington, towns of 
Georgetown and of Alexandria, of the District of Colum¬ 
bia, have officially communicated to this Department a 
document signed by their chief officers respectively, shew¬ 
ing that the Honorable Richard Rush, late Secretary of the 
Treasury of the United States has been appointed their 
agent to proceed to Europe to use bis endeavors to procure 
on loan the sum of a million and a half of dollars, wanted 
by them on account of their respective subscriptions for 
stock in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, and 
having solicited a letter from this Department to your 
house in furtherance of their object; I beg leave to state 
in compliance with their request, that the Canal Company 
for whose benefit this loan is intended, has so far received 
the countenance of the Legislative authority of the United 
States as to obtain a subscription to their stock, on the part 
of the General Government for one million of dollars.— 
With respect to the probable security for the proposed 
debt, it will be seen by a reference to the “act of Con¬ 
gress for enlarging the powers of the several Corporations 
of the District of Columbia and for other purposes,” that 
very plenary powers are vested in the President of the 
United States to enforce the payment of the taxes necessary 
to fulfill in good faith any engagement made in pursuance 
thereof. It is proper, however, to say that no revenue of 
the Government derived from other sources than those 
pointed out in the aforesaid act are considered to be pledg¬ 
ed lor the performance of such engagement; at the same 
time it may be confidently expected that the Government 
will take care to fulfill its just and proper duties under the 
act in question, should circumstances arise to make it ne¬ 
cessary. 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

(Signed) S. D. INGHAM. 

Messieurs Baring , Brothers $r Co, 

London . 


69 


No. 2. 

Answer of Messieurs Barings to No. 1. 

Bishopsgate Street, June 8, 1829. 

Sir : 

We have the honor of acknowledging your letter dated 
the 5th, communicating one of the objects which will en¬ 
gage your attention during your visit to Europe, and en¬ 
closing duplicate of a letter from the Treasury Department 
on the same subject. 

We beg to assure you that we are fully sensible of the 
importance of the business which has been placed under 
your able management, and if our time or services can be 
made in any way, available to its completion, we shall be 
most happy to employ them whenever you may call upon 
us. 

As you are so good as to leave us to decide whether it 
would be most convenient that we should have the pleasure 
of receiving you at our office or whether one of the part¬ 
ners should have the honor of waiting on you at your resi¬ 
dence, we take the liberty of adopting the latter arrange¬ 
ment and for that purpose we trust Wednesday at one 
o’clock will not be an inconvenient hour for us to fix upon. 
Should however any other day or hour be more agreeable 
to you, we shall be quite ready to obey your summons at 
the shortest notice. 

With great personal esteem we have the honor to be, 
Sir, your most obedient servant, 
(Signed) BARING, BROTHERS, & Co. 

Hon . Richard Rush , 

Osnaburg Street , Regent's Park. 


No. 3. 

Letter of 18th June, to Messieurs Barings to ascertain their views. 

June 18, 1829, ( 
32 Charlotte Street , Portland Place. $ 

Gentlemen : 

Referring to the interviews we have had respecting the 
loan of a million and a half of dollars, it occurs to me to 
say, that if there be any further explanations on the subject 
that you would consider desirable, I should be happy to be 
afforded an opportunity of giving them, either in writing, 
should you prefer that mode, or in the more free inter- 


/ 



70 


course of further conversations, at such time and place, as 
may entirely suit your convenience. 

But should you after the explanations already given, 
both verbally and upon paper, feel yourselves sufficiently 
acquainted with the general subject, then permit me to 
say that in case you entertain any inclination to take the 
loan, I should be happy to receive an intimation of the 
terms you would be disposed to offer. 

I will not disguise the strong wish I have that the entire 
loan may be taken by your house upon terms that may be 
satisfactory to the three towns, as well as yourselves, and 
due to the ample security provided under the immediate 
eye and sanction of the national legislature and executive, 
for ensuring good faith on the part of the towns to whatev¬ 
er engagements they may enter into ; a good faith which it 
is manifestly the intention of Congress shall not be frustrat¬ 
ed in any way. This we read in the law throughout, but 
more especially in that clause of it imposing upon the 
towns the obligation of having their funds in readiness to 
meet every coming engagement ninety days in advance, in 
a manner that shall satisfy the President of the United 
States ; who is thus constituted by the law, the Judge and 
Director of their actions. I will barely add at this time, 
that although the redemption of no part of the loan could 
be fixed at a period more remote than thirty years, each 
town in arranging the details of a contract would expect 
to reserve the option of redeeming after twenty years. 
Georgetown indeed would prefer fifteen years. 

I have the honor to remain with great respect, 
Your obedient servant, 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Messieurs Baring , Brothers & Co. 


No. 4. 


Messieurs Baring to Mr. Rush, declining to take the lean. 

Bishopsgate Street, June 22, 1829. 


Sir : 

We have the honor of acknowledging your letter of the 
18th referring to the application you addressed to our 
house on your arrival here, respecting the contemplated 
loan for the three towns ©f Washington, Georgetown and 
Alexandria, and we will not now repeat the explanation 
we have had the satisfaction of personally offering of the 



71 


delay which has occured in making known our decision 
on the subject. 

We have examined attentively all the documents author¬ 
izing these loans, and we need hardly assure you that we 
perceive in them the same evidence of good faith and reg¬ 
ularity which so strongly characterizes every public engage¬ 
ment which has emanated from the representative bodies 
of the North American Republic. 

If therefore we were treating for this stock, with a view 
only to investment on our own account, we should be quite 
satisfied with the nature of the security offered, and it would 
only remain to arrange the terms on which vou would be 
prepared to dispose of it; but such is not the case ; in en¬ 
tering upon business of this sort, we look eventually to 
placing the stock with the public, and though it is a neces¬ 
sary preliminary that we should be satisfied ourselves as to 
the solidity of the transaction, yet that is not sufficient; we 
must also feel confident, that the security is such as will 
induce others to become interested as purchasers. 

Many circumstances combine to render us extremely 
doubtful as to our findingthe public so disposed towards the 
stock which you are now desirous of negotiating. Amongst 
those which most influence us in this opinion, we consider 
as the most important the effect produced by the various 
stocks which are now offering in the money market with the 
security of the individual States. We allude more particu¬ 
larly to those of Pennsylvania, of Louisiana, and of Ohio, 
which having only been lately brought forward, have not 
yet found their way into the hands of those who would 
hold them for investment. This class of investors never 
was very extensive ; and probably the loss which many of 
them have lately sustained by the reimbursement of Gov¬ 
ernment stocks which they were holders of, when the ex¬ 
change was unfavorable for remittances, has not had the 
effect of adding to their number. 

Having already mentioned in conversation other causes 
which we thought it probable would be found to operate 
against the proposed loan at the present moment, we will 
not trouble you by again enumerating them. You must have 
perceived from the public prints that we are laboring un¬ 
der a pressure in the money market, and you must of course 
be aware that such a state of the circulation must not al¬ 
together be overlooked in estimating the difficulties which 
wc should have to contend with. 


72 


With an earnest desire therefore to facilitate an under¬ 
taking of so much importance to the country as that for 
which this loan is required we are sorry to conclude by 
stating, that under the present aspect of things we do not 
feel sufficiently confident to make any proposal as contrac¬ 
tors, but at the same time we take the liberty of assuring 
you that it will give as great pleasure to make our services 
or our local information in any other manner available to 
its success. 

With the expression of our gratitude for the flattering 
terms in which you have been pleased to allude to our firm, 
We have the honor to be, Sir, 

Your obedient servants, 

(Signed) BARING, BROTHERS & Co. 


No. 5. 


Reply of Mr. Rush to Mr. YVillink. 


London, June 8,1829.^ 

9 Osnaburg Street , Regent's Park. ) 

Sir : 

I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 20th 
of January, and also the copy of it under cover of your 
favor of the 12th of May, in reply to my letters of the 24th 
and 25th of last November from the Treasury Department 
of the United States, on the subject of a loan of a million 
and a half of dollars for the city of Washington, and the 
towns of Georgetown and Alexandria. The original as 
well as the copy of your letter of the 20th of January, first 
came to my hands here, a few days ago, having arrived in 
the United States just after my embarkation, whence they 
were forwarded to me. 

As all the proposals that you are so good as to make un¬ 
der my letters of the 24th and 25th of November, assume 
as their basis that the Congress of the United States are to 
give a direct and simple guarantee for the repayment of the 
loan in question, they apply to a state of things which does 
not exist in point of fact. I have no authority for saying 
that the law of Congress of the 24th of May, 1828, which 
provides what was considered by that body ample security 
for the loan, will be altered ; and it is therefore only under 
the provisions of that law as it now stands in all respects, 
that the towns can treat. I have brought with me to Eu~ 



73 


rope, full powers to act on their behalf, and should you 
incline to make any offers on the basis as here explained, 
I shall be happy to receive them by letter from you, ad¬ 
dressed to me in London, as soon as your convenience 
may allow. 

I have the honor to remain with great respect. 
Your obedient servant. 

RICHARD RUSH. 

William Willink , Jun, Esq . Amsterdam. 


No. 6. 

Further letter from Mr. Willink to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, 20th June, 1829. 

Sir : 

I have the honor to reply to your esteemed favor, 8th 
inst. and regret extremely that my respects of 20th Janu¬ 
ary last did not come to hand previous to your departure 
from the United States, because the considerations sub¬ 
mitted might have perhaps provoked a change in the state of 
things as it exists, useful not only but profitable at the same 
time. The credit of the United States is so firmly estab¬ 
lished that I do not hesitate to say that its Government 
could at present obtain loans here on more favorable terms 
than any other power; but this is not the case, neither with 
any of the individual States of the Union, as the late loan 
called the Louisiana loan proves, nor with individual cities, 
towns, or corporations ; and in this present case the loans 
formerly made on the security of lots in the City of Wash¬ 
ington from whence no dividends ever have come forward 
do not, I am sorry to be obliged to say so, inspire that con¬ 
fidence in the proffered securities which would be so es¬ 
sential to the success of the intended loans. 

These considerations are of so much weight that what 
can be done with the formal guarantee of the United States 
cannot be accomplished without it; and I believe it to be 
quite impossible to effect a loan for the city of Washington 
and the towns of Alexandria and Georgetown in the pre¬ 
sent state of the case, and without the formal guarantee of 
the United States, any where. I had flattered myself and 
still do so, that the Government of the United States, un¬ 
der whose immediate jurisdiction those three places are 
situated, can do more for them than for any other city, 

10 



74 


town or corporation in the Union ; and therefore beg leave 
to submit to your consideration, that you give advice of 
the impossibility that exists to effect the proposed loans 
unless they are formally guaranteed by the Government, 
both capital and interest, in order that if possible this guar¬ 
antee be obtained. It is true we might attempt and offer 
the loans to our capitalists under the provisions of the law 
of Congress of 24 May, 1828 ; but I am morally convinc¬ 
ed that but little if any success would attend it, and a fail¬ 
ure would tend to create a prejudice rendering a second 
attempt even under other circumstances liable to less fav¬ 
orable terms, whilst in my humble opinion nothing in mat¬ 
ters of this kind must be left to hazard and chance. 

I can therefore not make any proposal or submit any 
scheme for the intended loans in the state of things that 
exist; and if I am well informed you will meet with the same 
difficulties in England. I hope however that the Govern¬ 
ment of the United States will determine to guarantee the 
reimbursements of the capital and the payment of interest 
of the intended loans, when I am confident that they will be 
taken here with pleasure on the terms expressed in my re¬ 
spects of the 20th January last, if not even on more favor¬ 
able ones, provided the state of the money market remains 
as favorable as it is at present. I hope this matter may be 
considered in the same light and shall be happy if any ex¬ 
ertions in the attainment of your wishes meet with the de¬ 
sired success. 

I have the honor to be very respectfully, Sir, 
Your most obedient servant, 

(Signed) W. WILLINK, Jr. 

Richard Rush , Esq . 

Late Secretary of the Treasury of the United States . 

JVo. 1 Bishopsgate Church Yard , London. 


No. 7. 

Mr. Marx to Mr. Rush. 

Tuesday, 1 o’clock, July 7th, 1829. 

Mv Dear Sir : 

I am disappointed from various causes in seeing you this 
morning and may be disappointed, before your depart¬ 
ure. In the mean time, I waited this day at 1 2 on Mr. 
Rothschild by appointment, who continued to express his 



75 


readiness to join in the contemplated loan with any Ameri¬ 
can houses and to take his full share if they do so. Should 
you be disengaged this evening. Mr R. would be happy to 
make your acquaintance, and he will receive you at any 
time from 6 to 9 this evening, at his counting house, New 
Court St. Svvithin’s Lane, and I will hold myself ready at 
Bedford Place to attend you if you think proper. 1 would 
myself wish to say a few words before you leave, but of no 
consequence, and remain, 

Your devoted obedient servant, 
(Signed) GEORGE MARX. 


No. 8. 

Messieurs Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, July 22nd, 1829. 

Sir : 

Referring to the conversation we had the honor of hold¬ 
ing with you yesterday, we beg to repeat in writing the 
substance thereof, in compliance with your request to that 
effect. 

We stated that various considerations, and chiefly the 
nature of the loan would not allow us to make a positive 
offer—not at least without having given the matter a some¬ 
what more public trial ; but that if we could bring the 
loan forward, that we had good reason to believe, and in fact 
had very little doubt, but it would be taken on terms not ex¬ 
ceeding the interest of 5§ per cent, per annum for an average 
duration of twenty years, comprising all charges whatever 
here at the raising of the loan, during the running thereof, 
and at its reimbursement; the loan then to be effected here, 
on commission, and in every respect on the account of the 
three corporations, the interest and reimbursement to be 
provided here at flxed rates and stated times, entirely at 
their risk and expense. The public here is desirous of find¬ 
ing new employ for capital; the great point is that the pub¬ 
lic mind be satisfied of the investment being safe—if satis¬ 
fied of that, the stock will be taken freely and at moderate 
terms, and no extraordinary sacrifice will at all be required 
from the Corporations. But if not satisfied fully on that 
point a large bonus, and higher interest even would not 
tempt our capitalists to part with the money. 

It will be superfluous to add that a change in the present 



76 

favorable state of the money market might also effect pros¬ 
pects as regards this loan. 

We trust the above will answer your wishes; and have the 
honor to remain with great regard, 

Sir, your most obedient humble servants, 
(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN & SON* 

Tv the Honorable Richard Rush , fyc, fyc. 


No. 9. 

Messieurs Crcmmelins to Mr. Rush. [Marked confidential on the envelope .J 

Amsterdam, July 22ud, 1829. 

Sir : 

Referring to the letter which we had already the honor 
of addressing to you under this day’s date, the contents of 
which we have limited to the main question, we now beg 
to return to you herewith the sundry papers, &c. which 
you have had the goodness to communicate to us, and 
we make free to add a few lines to serve only in case that 
the other plan might happen to draw your attention, after 
the further ascertaining of the resources Loudon may offer 
for the attainment of the object in view. 

We have deemed it unnecessary to enter into the detail 
of the expenses, having perfectly understood the meaning 
of the terms you mentioned—say that the corporations con¬ 
senting for instance to take upon them the charge of paying 
5 1-2 per cent interest, and stock to be issued here bearing 
interest only at 5, the average duration of the loan being 
fixed for instance at 20 years.the aggregate of this annual sav~ 
jng of i per cent, during 20 years, might be applied towards 
the payment of all expenses in Holland, say the Bonus, 
Commissions, Brokerages, &c. This is the main point, 
the other arrangements would be of a less primary impor¬ 
tance, and it would be premature to enter into them at this 
moment; with a mutual disposition to further the main ob¬ 
ject there can be no doubt but those minor points would 
also be settled satisfactorily. 

There is one consideration however which is of the 
highest order, and to which, in case further application 
should happen to be made to us, we must beg leave to call 
your attention. It is the vital question of the ability of the 
Corporations to take upon them the burthen of these loans. 

The credit of the house borrowing would be essentially 



77 


implicated with a loan of the nature of the one intended, 
and great would be the moral responsibility which we 
should take upon us in presenting the stock to the public 
and asserting our bona-fide and thorough conviction of the 
safety of the loan, without which unqualified assertion it 
would certainly not be taken 5 of all this you will be fully 
aware. 

The conversations which w r e have had the honor of hold¬ 
ing with you, leave little or no doubt upon our minds as to 
the safety of the investment. The public faith of the Uni¬ 
ted States is so much mixed up with the matter, that we 
should not readily permit ourselves to doubt that it presents 
all reasonable grounds of security. 

But we should not wish that our individval opinion should 
have to throw too great a weight in the balance of public 
opinion. We should wish to be able to lay such documents 
before the public as would enable the takers to judge for 
themselves ; to acquire a conviction from knowledge ; from 
a due acquaintance with the facts bearing upon the case. 

Nor could we, unless some further documents were ad¬ 
ded, we apprehend, fully meet the objections that might be, 
and have been started to us, even by persons disposed from 
inclination and interest to lend powerful aid in placing the 
stock. 

If the canal stock proves good and productive, the mat¬ 
ter of the loan will suffer no difficulty ; if circumstances 
however should lead to a disappointment, not probable we 
allow, but not wanting in precedents however in both hemis 
pheres we suppose—would in such a case the loans not 
prove a heavy burthen to the Corporations ? 

This question becomes the more important as the put¬ 
ting into action of the power of the President, great as the 
security is which it gives to the loan, still would only be a 
last resource, the necessity of recurring to which would be 
greatly to be deprecated, and which would, de facto, almost 
become impracticable if it had to be resorted to constantly 
for a long run of years. The percentage of the tax also 
seems heavy ; an annual tax of on real and personal 
estate, in additon to all other taxes would certainly, if we 
bring the case home—and if we understand well the mean¬ 
ing of the word personal , be deemed oppressive in Hol¬ 
land—and if the canal stock should happen to be unproduc¬ 
tive, might perhaps be deemed equally oppressive in the 
District. 


78 


We should be desirous also to receive some elucidation 
why the precise per centages of lyjf, T fJ- and have 

been determined upon ? Fixing thus exactly the rate of 
taxation allowed for this loan enables Mr. Ingham to say, 
or at least to appear to say, that the provision for the loan 
is limited to the proceeds of that taxation. Probably how¬ 
ever the act or bond which you would have to pass to us 
in the name of the Corporations would remedy this, by 
binding as we suppose such a bond would bind, all their 
property toward the due fulfilment of their obligation,— 
which coupled then with the depositing the contract at 
the Treasury, and the general duty assumed by the Presi¬ 
dent to see the Corporations meet their engagements, 
would make we trust the security good and valid. At all 
events copies of the appraisements or statements of the as¬ 
sessed value of the real and personal estate mentioned in the 
act of Congress, section 5, would be highly desirable, if not 
absolutely necessary, to enable the public, or any one, to 
form a correct opinion as to the apparent ability of the 
Corporations to meet the debt with interest and reimburse¬ 
ment at the stated times, even in case of the failure of the 
canal stock. Some general detail about the state of the fi¬ 
nances of these Corporations might also be desirable to show 
their flourishing condition, and the extent of their other 
debts, if they have any. The Washington debt for instance 
of one million of dollars would, in case of the canal stock 
being unproductive, lay a burthen of say 50 a 55 thousand 
dollars a year, and when the reimbursement began of 100 a 
105 thousand dollars, upon say 20,000 inhabitants. The in¬ 
terest of the city debt of Amsterdam amounts to about 320 
thousand dollars to be borne by about 180,000 inhabitants. 
This we call and find heavy; there are many other taxes 
and burdens here however, and the proportion of paupers 
certainly is much greater here, and we are quite willing to 
admit that the youthful energies of Washington, Alexandria 
and Georgetown, and their rising condition may enable 
them to bear with comparative ease what would appear a 
heavy weight to an older community. It is in an older com¬ 
munity however that the money lenders live, and they 
judge of foreign cities by what is the case where they do 
live themselves. 

A word from you, eventually explaining exactly what is 
meant by personal estate as used in the act of Congress 
would also oblige. 


79 


The obtaining the sanction of the King might take a little 
time; and as it would be best to defer bringing the loan 
forward at all until that sanction were obtained, it would 
be advisable to ask the permission of Government at an 
early stage of the business—the asking and even the obtain¬ 
ing of the permission involves no necessity to carry the 
matter into execution. 

If circumstances should happen tG lead to a correspond¬ 
ence being opened with us on the subject, we should sug¬ 
gest your transmitting us then a copy of the power of at¬ 
torney from the Corporations, which would be required for 
the framing of the acts to be passed and executed by you 
and us conjointly as we suppose, and the schemes of which 
would have to be discussed and settled before we could 
move with the public in this matter. 

The object being of importance to all that are or might 
be connected with it, we have made free to trespass thus 
much upon your time, and which we trust you will excuse. 
We cannot however dismiss the subject without expressing 
to you our sincere acknowledgments for the confidence 
placed in us, thus far, and assuring you that our most can¬ 
did opinion, and our best exertions as far as we can go, are, 
and will always be at the free and unrestricted command of 
your worthy self and of the Corporations you represent. 

We have the honor to remain very respectfully, Sir, 
Your obedient and humble servants, 
(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN, & SON. 

To the Honorable Richard Rush , fyc. fyc, <^c. 


10 

Mr. Rush to Messieurs Crommelios. 

Amsterdam, July 23rd, 1829, Doelen Hotel. 

Gentlemen : 

I have received this morning the two letters of yester¬ 
day’s date (one of them confidential) with which you have 
been so good as to favor me, and will not fail to give a care¬ 
ful attention to their contents, should circumstances lead to 
a renewal of our intercourse on the subject to which they 
relate. In the meantime I beg to assure you, that I 
estimate properly the full and candid consideration which 
you have bestowed upon that subject, as I also do the very 
kind reception which you have given me personally, since 
my arrival in this city. 



80 


For the present, I will barely state, in allusion to a single 
suggestion in one of your letters, that by the expression 
personal property, I understand to be meant, household fur¬ 
niture, plate, horses, carriages, goods of all kinds, money, 
and I may say, in short, moveable property of every descrip¬ 
tion, as contradistinguished from houses or land. The lat¬ 
ter are denominated by the English law, which in this re¬ 
spect is also our law, real property. 

I have the honor to remain with great respect, 
Your obedient servant, 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Messieurs Crommelin , fy Sons . 


No. 11. 

Mr. Rush to Mr. Rothschild. 

Mr. Rush presents his compliments to Mr. Rothschild, 
and now begs leave to send him a paper containing the 
explanatory remarks or statement respecting the proposed 
loan for the city of Washington and towns of Georgetown 
and Alexandria, as authorized by a law of Congress of 
the United States of America. Mr. R. has had it print¬ 
ed, that it may be read by Mr. Rothschild with the less 
trouble at his leisure. 

Whilst Mr. R. has endeavored as far as possible to avoid 
encumbering the statement with details, he has found the 
necessary official facts of the case, with the principles they 
are connected with, to call for more room than he had an¬ 
ticipated. He hopes that these facts may be found to de¬ 
monstrate to the judgment of Mr. Rothschild the certain¬ 
ty of the interest and principal being punctually paid on 
this loan, which is so pointedly under the guardianship of 
the government of the United States. 

August, 27, 1829, 

32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 


No. 12. 

Mr. Rush to Mr. Baring. 

September 4, 1829, > 
32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. $ 

Dear Sir : 

In the conversation with which you favored me at your 
residence in Piccadilly the latter end of June, I intimated 




81 


my belief, that, on your house taking a portion of the loan 
that i am charged with negotiating, say a half or a third, 
there was another house of undoubted strength would do 
the same, under the shield of yours. Permit me now to 
repeat this belief, and to add, that the house in question 
is that of Mr. Rothschild. 

I have not this assurance from Mr. Rothschild, person- 
ally; but I hope it will be found that I do not entertain 
the belief without sufficient grounds. 

1 would not write thus to you after the letter from your 
house of the 22d of June, declining the loan, but from hav¬ 
ing been laid under the impression in the further interview 
that you favored me with at these lodgings on the 28th of 
that month before 1 went to Holland, that, on my failing 
to effect my purpose in that country, you might not be 
indisposed to look at the subject on the above basis when 
I returned. 

If I were at liberty to say to Mr. Rothschild, that you 
would take a half or a third, I have at present little doubt 
but that he would take the same amount. I had grounds 
for this belief heretofore, and they are strengthened to 
day, although Mr. Rothschild is at this moment in Paris. 

If you have still no unwillingness to this course, I should 
understand the terms alluded to by you in the second of 
the above conversations, to be those on which your consent 
would rest, viz. the terms made known in the letter of your 
house to the Treasury Department of the United States of 
the 13th of January, 1829. 

The nature of this letter implies, that whatever consent 
you may give in relation to the subject, is to be cancelled, 
at your option, on Mr. Rothschild declining to be con¬ 
cerned in the operation. 

I beg to add, that should the towns obtain the loan, they 
do not want the whole sum at once. It would be most 
convenient to them to receive it in instalments, the first of 
which to be payable two or three months hence. 

I have the honor to remain, 

With great respect, your obedient servant, 
RICHARD RUSH. 

Alexander Baring, Esquire. 


11 



82 


No 13. 

Mr. Baring to Mr. Rush. 

The Grange, Abersford, 7th September, ’29. 

My dear sir : 

I have m < de a short absence from home or your letter 
of the 4th would have had an earlier answer. Being ou 
of the immediate current of business, 1 could not take 
upon myself to answer your proposal positively. The case 
must depend much on the immediate feeling and inclina¬ 
tion of the monied public of which 1 cannot at this distance 
speak. I fear, however, that the sort of arrangement you 
propose would not suit, for reasons which 1 could explain 
to you more easily personally than by letter. I will, how¬ 
ever, exchange an explanatory letter with my working 
partners, and you shall hear from me again. There seems 
a slackness about these securities both at Amsterdam and 
in London, which I cannot quite account for. They are 
certainly substantially better than many which circulate 
very freely, and, personally. I entertain little doubt about 
them. I conclude that you could not make any satisfac¬ 
tory arrangement with Messrs. Crommelins. 

If, in this dull season of the London world, you could 
spare us a short visit, it would afford the greatest plea¬ 
sure both to Mrs. Baring and myself. From this day until 
the 20th you will be sure to find us here. We are 59 
miles from town on the Southampton road. 

Believe me, dear Sir, 

Your humble and obedient servant, 

(Signed) ALEX. BARING. 

R. Rush, Esq. 


No. 14. 

Mr. Rush to Mr. Baring. 

September 9, 1329. ? 

32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 5 

Dear Sir : 

Your favor of the 7th reached me yesterday. I had 
made known, informally, to one of your partners, the re¬ 
sult of my operations in Holland ; but it seems to me that 
if the loan were taken under good auspices here, it would 
not want countenance there. That the whole operation 
would be as secure, and all payments be made with as 
much punctuality as if Congress were to adopt the loan 



83 


in form, as it has substantially, cannot, one would think 
well be doubted, when the public and authentic facts that 
have marked the passing of the present law, are borne in 
mind. Whether the scrip would have the quality of trans- 
ferrability in the same degree at first; or, if not, with what 
degree of certainty that quality would in good time be ac¬ 
quired for it, under the experience of dividends punctual¬ 
ly received, are questions that I am less able to pronounce 
upon. 

I should be most happy to take advantage of your oblig¬ 
ing invitation to visit the Grange; and, building upon the 
invitation you were formerly good enough to give me, and 
one very kindly added by Mrs. Baring, I had, until very 
recently, always been looking forward to that gratification 
before leaving England, which I am anxious to do before 
long. But the advancing state of the season, and one of 
my objects of business being still unfinished, deprive me of 
the hope of being able to leave town this month. 

Requesting to offer my best compliments to Mrs. Bar¬ 
ing, l remain, dear sir, &c. &c. &c. 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Alexander Baring, Esq. 


No. 15. 

Mr. Bating to Mr. Rush. 

The Grange, Abersford, 11th Sept. 1829. 

Dear Sir : 

I have to thank you for the favor of your letter of the 
9th. I have, since I wrote to you, communicated with my 
partners in London, and I am very sorry to say that the 
view they take of the case is so discouraging that, as they 
are charged with the execution of business, 1 do not feel 
justified in acting upon speculative opinions of my own as 
to the sufficiency of the securities you have to propose. 
My own opinion is, that the security is substantially good; 
but as I am out of the way of lecturing the public on this 
head, I fear we must give up the hope of treating with 
you. It is above all things desirable that we should state 
the case plainly, and not mislead you by delusive expecta¬ 
tions. I fear, therefore, that 1 must state the difficulty as 
it stands, to be insurmountable. It seems that the public 
have been pu-zzled lately by the exhibition of a variety of 



84 


local stecks, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana, &c. 
all probably good ; but there are so few who have the 
power of discriminating, that the distrust inspired by the 
losses incurred from other mistaken investments prevails, 
and they move very heavily. The security of your three 
federal towns, under the superintendence of the General 
Government, would to me be very satisfactory ; but the 
conquering the distrust of the public appears a work of too 
much difficuity for us to encounter. The guarantee of 
Congress would make the business quite easy ; but as you 
have tried the Dutch market, and my partners have come 
to the conclusive opinion as to the state of ours, we must 
consider that it is not to be done on very reasonable terms 
without it. The amount wanted is not considerable, and 
for many reasons it would not suit us to unite with others 
in the negotiation, which would thereby rather suffer than 
be improved in the opinion of the public. 

I am truly sorry, my dear sir, for this disappointment, 
should it prove one, as it would have been a great gratifi¬ 
cation to me to promote your views on this occasion, and 
as it is further always an object of ambition with me to con¬ 
nect my name with any operation affecting the improve¬ 
ment of any portion of the American Union. 

We shall be happy to see you here if you have leisure, 
and you will be pretty sure to find us at home through this 
and the next month. 

Believe, my dear Sir, truly, 

Your humble and obedient Servant, 

(Signed) ALEX. BARING. 

Richard Rush, Esq. 


No. 16. 

Messrs. Barings to Mr. Rush. 

Bishopgate Street, Sept. 7. 

Messrs. Baring, Brothers & Co. present their compli¬ 
ments to Mr. Rush and beg to express their acknowledg¬ 
ments of his kindness in sending them the two printed pa¬ 
pers in reference to the projected undertaking, for which 
the towns of the District of Columbia are desirous of nego¬ 
tiating a loan. 

Messrs. Baring, Brothers & Co. have read these papers 
with the greatest attention, and it appears to them, that the 



85 


advantages and security which such a stock would offer for 
investment, are therein so clearly pointed out, that were 
other circumstances favorable, the publication of them 
would very much facilitate the disposal of the certificates. 

Messrs. Baring, Brothers & Co. beg to assure Mr. Rush, 
that the subject of his pamphlet interests them, both from 
its own merit and from the part he has had in maturing it, 
too much for them to feel otherwise than most grateful for 
any communication with which he may favor them in ex¬ 
planation of it. 


No. 17. 

Mr. Rush to Messieurs Crommelins. 

London, September 18, 1829,) 
32 Charlotte Street, Portland Place. $ 

Gentlemen : 

I had believed until recently, that the house of Mes. 
sieurs Barings and Mr. Rothschild, would each take one 
third of the loan of a million and a half of dollars, that I 
am charged with negotiating ; but the former decline, for 
reasons however not affecting their favorable opinion of the 
solidity of the measure. But Mr. Rothschild, I am led to 
suppose, would still go forward in the measure, if in con¬ 
junction with a house known to be connected with Ameri¬ 
can interests, though he might not perhaps be disposed to 
move in it alone. 

It is on this ground that I venture to address this letter to 
you, with a view to inquire how far you might incline to 
co-operate with Mr. Rothschild. Your letter to me of the 
22d of July, when I had the pleasure of being in intercourse 
with you at Amsterdam, having reference to an offer for 
the whole loan by yourselves alone, it has occurred to me 
that the transaction may perhaps be viewed differently by 
you, as one to be shared by others, and by others of such 
undoubted pecuniary power, in this capital. The printed 
paper of remarks on the subject of this loan, which I transmit¬ 
ted to you on the ninth instant, will be found I hope to meet 
essentially the points stated in your second or confidential 
letter to me, of the 22nd of July, apart from all that pas¬ 
sed in our personal interviews. 

I have the honor to remain with great respect. 
Your obedient servant, 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Mess . Daniel Crommelin : Sons . 



86 


No. 18. 

Messieurs Cromraelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, Sept. 19, 1829. 

Sir : 

We have had the honor of receiving your note accom¬ 
panying the printed remarks on the subject of the propos¬ 
ed loan. 

We were under the impression that matters were more 
advanced in England than we may now infer from that 
communication—leaving, it would appear, an opening for 
us still to treat. 

We suppose the plan of selling the stock, laying the Cor¬ 
poration under no further obligation than that of providing 
the funds for interest and reimbursement, at the United 
States Treasury, would be preferred by you to the othei 
plan we had sketched out at the time. 

We are trying whether any thing and what could be done 
on the plan of a clear sale of the whole stock, and we shall 
probably have the honor of waiting upon you with a com¬ 
munication next mail. 

We should be pleased if we could still be of use to you 
in this matter, and have meanwhile the honor to remain 
respectfully and truly, Sir, your most obedient servant, 
(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN, & CO, 

Hon. Richard Rush, London . 


No. 19. 


Messieurs Crommelin to Mr. Rush. [ With enclosure headed Note.~± 
Amsterdam, Sept. 22nd, 1829. 


Sir : 

We beg your reference to our respects of last mail, when 
from some preliminary conversation, we had been in hopes 
that we should have been able to make you a more posi¬ 
tive proposal based on a plan of the clear sale of the certifi¬ 
cates. We regret however to have to mention that the 
final result of our negotiations corresponds with the view 
we took of the matter, when we had the honor of seeing 
you here—say that unless exchange is guaranteed both 
for interest and reimbursement, that there is no chance of 
effecting the loan here at fair rates. We have however 
been confirmed, in what we also took the liberty of stating to 




87 


you ; say that with the exchange guaranteed, we think it 
highly probable the money could be raised at a fair rate. 
We think that for a 5 per cent, stock, we could realize 91, 
all bonus, expenses, brokerage and commissions off. The 
new Russian 5 per cent, stock as far as we can trace the 
matter has yielded about 94, commission, brokerage and ex¬ 
penses otF. It is made on the same conditions on which we 
propose making your loan, say that Russia pays all expenses 
on the interest and on the reimbursement, and guarantees 
exchange. The difference, now, between 94 net proceeds 
for that stock so well known, and a favorite stock for many 
years in Holland, and 91 net proceeds for the Corporation 
stock, does not seem to be out of the way. We add en¬ 
closed a note of net proceeds and further expenses. 

To make you a positive offer we cannot; but if the terms 
here mentioned should draw your attention, and a further 
exchange of letters between us should have settled finally 
all further particulars, and you could then leave us the 
stock in hand for a fortnight, we have very little doubt but 
we should in due course be able to advise you that all had 
been placed. 

We want a little time, as we should have to treat pri¬ 
vately with sundry of our stock dealers, who would of 
course afterwards have to endeavour to work it off gradually 
at some profit; their individual subscriptions going for no¬ 
thing unless the whole got subscribed for. 

We mention 91 as net proceeds, but the stock might as 
well be stated to be sold as much higher as our commission 
and expenses would amount to, and those brought in ac¬ 
count with the Corporations. We should prefer in that way, 
not becoming contractors ourselves. This however is mat¬ 
ter of form to be settled when making final arrangements. 

The saving effected on the interest, paying 5 instead of 
6 per cent, the limit of the act of Congres?,would it seems be 
more than enough to compensate the commission, and guar¬ 
antee for risk of bills, both which will have to be paid by the 
Corporations in the United States, to the agent appointed 
for receiving the dividends and reimbursements, and remit¬ 
ting them to us, and also to cover the possible loss on the ex¬ 
change. 

We should wish the agency for the receipt and transmis¬ 
sion of the dividends and reimbursements, to be placed with 
the United States Branch Bank, at Washington. They 
would then be holders of our power of Attorney, but have 


88 


to call upon the Corporations for their commission and sur¬ 
plus, if any should be necessary to provide the fixed amount 
of guilders in Holland. 

We hope we have not gone in those particulars beyond 
the limits of what discretion will allow. We have a great 
wish to serve the Corporations if possible, and have been 
led somewhat to develope what may lead to the object in 
view. 

Having written so far, we have still to acknowledge the 
receipt of your esteemed favor of the 18 th inst. which came 
to hand this moment. The foregoing is a full answer, beg¬ 
ging leave to add that we have found a strong reluctance 
with those we have been in treaty with here to come for¬ 
ward at all, unless the whole of the stock could be kept to¬ 
gether. Any combination with Mr. Rothschild also would 
have to proceed on the plan of a sale of certificates, which 
to our regret is impracticable here. 

We have the honor to remain respectfully, Sir, 
Your most obedient humble servants, 
(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN, & SONS. 

To the Hon . Richard Rush, 

Late Secretary of the Treasury of the U.S . c^c. London . 


NOTE. 

§1,500,000, paid for by the subscribers at 40 cents per guil¬ 
der, and engaged to be repaid to them also at that 
rate, let the exchange at the time be either high¬ 
er or lower, making in consequence 3,750,00 
florins or guilders, Capital Stock, bearing interest 
at the rate of 5 per cent per annum, say f50 per 
annum for each flOOO capital realized; all ex¬ 
penses of the loan, commission, brokerage, bo¬ 
nus, &c. &c. included at 91„f3,412,500 ; which 
amount of f3,4l2,500 would then be the net pro¬ 
ceeds of the loan to the credit, and at the dispo¬ 
sal of the Corporations on the books of Daniel 
Crommelin and Sons, to be drawn for by the Cor¬ 
porations to the best of their advantage. 

Jf drawn for from the United States di¬ 
rect on Amsterdam, the net proceeds in the 
United States to the Corporations would be 

at 40 cents §1,365,000 
40J- “ 1,38:2,062 t ™ 

41 “ 1,399,12$ 



89 


The farther charges would be 
1 per cent, commission on the amount of interest, 

1 per cent, commission on the amount of reimbursement. 
Besides that, we should charge in account current to the 
Corporation the small charges of stamps, &c- on bills re¬ 
mitted to us for the interest and reimbursement, but which 
altogether would be a mere trifle. 

The stock to begin paying off in 10 years, j^th each 
year, making the average duration of the loan 20 years. 
If longer, the saving on the interest would proportionally 
be the greater. 


No. 20. 

Mr. Rash to Messrs. Crommelins. 

London, September 29, 1829, ) 

32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. ( 

Gentelmen : 

I have been favored with your two letters of the 19th 
and 22nd instant. 

Still regretting that you do not feel free to make me a 
positive offer for the loan, which I should have greatly 
preferred, I have, notwithstanding, come to the conclusion, 
after full deliberation, to accede to the general terms sta¬ 
ted in your letter of the 22nd, hoping that they may prove, 
in the end, satisfactory on both sides. 

I understand the terms generally to be, a five per cent, 
stock at 91, commission, brokerage, bonus, and expenses 
off; or the stock to be stated to be sold as much higher as 
these would amount to, and brought in account to the cor¬ 
porations. All the foregoing charges, in which I under¬ 
stand commission on paying dividends to be included, with 
other charges, if there be others, not to leave the borrow¬ 
ers at a higher rate of interest in the aggregate, (apart 
from the risks of exchange) than five and a half per cent., 
as was heretofore stated between us at Amsterdam. 

The interest to be paid quarterly at the Treasury of the 
United States, to such agent or attorney (the Branch Bank 
of the United States for example) as you may appoint to 
receive it there; the principal to be reimbursed there in 
like manner. Exchange to be guaranteed to the lender 
on all payments on account of interest or principal; it be¬ 
ing understood, on the other hand, that the borrowers are 
to have the benefit of exchange on the amount of the loan, 
as the same may be advanced to them. 

12 



90 


The loan to be for thirty years ; but the reimbursement 
to begin in ten years from the first advance, and proceed 
at the rate of one twentieth a year, until the whole is paid 
off. 

No objection is perceived to the statements contained 
on the paper enclosed in your letter of the 22nd instant, 
it being understood that no expenses are to fall upon the 
corporations, unless the operation of raising the loan suc¬ 
ceed in your hands ; just as the individual subscriptions to 
which your letter alludes, would go for nothing, unless the 
whole be subscribed for. 

I send you the certificates by a safe conveyance, made 
up in two parcels. You will perceive that they run in 
sums of 500, 1000, and 2000 dollars, and are consequent¬ 
ly numerous. 1 Jo not at present fill up the blanks with 
the name of your house, not knowing if you would wish 
this course pursued, or whether you would prefer the 
whole in only three certificates 5 that is, one for the gross 
amount from each of the towns, issuing your own guilder- 
bonds upon them, at Amsterdam, afterwards ; or how. I 
will attend to your suggestions in this respect. Some per¬ 
sons here object to the present form of the certificates as 
not stating more specially upon their face, for you will see 
it in the margin, the act of Congress under the authority 
of which they have validity ; not that this has been made a 
serious objection, it being obviously one of form only, and 
that can be cured if required. The certificate must indeed 
pursue the words prescribed in the act of Congress ; but 
a heading can be inserted in addition, referring to the act, 
in the manner proposed on the enclosed paper marked A 2. 
Should you wish this done, an interval would be required 
before the corporations could send them out so framed and 
signed anew. The present ones might stand in the mean 
time ; or I could sign new ones under my general authori¬ 
ty, which 1 should hope would satisfy the parties until 
others could arrive. Or, if it would save time, you are at 
full liberty to fill up the present certificates yourselves in 
such way as you think may best subserve our main pur¬ 
pose under the law, until we can do better. 

If the loan be raised, the towns would not wish the 
whole sum paid down at once, but in instalments ; say one 
third on the first of January next, one third on the first of 
January, 1831, and the remainder on the first of January, 


91 


1832 ; or if this be objectionable, the second instalment to 
be paid on the first of July next, and the last on the first of 
January following. Interest to begin from the day of pay¬ 
ing the first instalment. The first of January next is fixed 
as the time, as the corporations will want reasonable notice 
beforehand. 

I hope I have stated the essential points ; subject to such 
further explanations between us as may be necessary. 

I will ask it as a favor to hear from you. as soon as the 
nature of our subject will allow, being anxious to embaik 
on my return to Washington, before the season is too far 
advanced. 

I send enclosed in the two parcels, the powers given to 
me by the three towns to act on their behalf, with the do¬ 
cuments to which they refer. 

Repeating my hope that we may arrange matters to mu¬ 
tual satisfaction, begging to express my entire confidence 
in the fairness of all your views, and flattering myself that 
we bring, reciprocally, to our negotiation intentions that 
will prove conducive to a just issue, I have the honor to 
remain, With great respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Messrs. Daniel Crommelin and Sons , Amsterdam. 

P. S. Since writing the foregoing, it occurs to me that it 
will be best not to send the parcels, this time ; as, accord¬ 
ing to some views you may take of the subject, it may not 
be necessary to send all the certificates. There are, I 
think, though I do not now stop to count, more than sixteen 
hundred. I will wait your earliest advices, to forward 
them as you may wish. By this course we may save trou¬ 
ble and not lose time ; for, if we understand each other 
on the chief points, you can still, perhaps, be going on 
with preparatory arrangements. 1 enclose a single certifi¬ 
cate as a sample of the whole. Should the operation ad¬ 
vance, please to favor me, sketched on a separate paper, 
with your idea as to the form of filling up the blanks, on 
the basis of the terms as we may agree upon them. 

R. R. 


92 


A 2. 

Enclosure to No. 20. 

City oy Washington, Mayor's Office. 

Whereas, the Congress of the United States of Ameri¬ 
ca. by an act of the 24th of May, 1828, has authorized the 
corporation of the city of Washington to borrow money 
for the purposes mentioned in the said act, the act also 
providing a security for the same, and declaring that the 
payments due on the money so borrowed, are to be made 
at the Treasury of the United States; Therefore, in vir¬ 
tue of the said act of Congress, 

Be it known, That there is due* &c. &c. &c. [here fol¬ 
low the present certificate as now worded, except as to 
the dates, and let those for Georgetown and Alexandria 
have the same heading.] 


No. 21. 

Messrs. Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, Oct. 3, 1829. 

Sir : 

The present will merely serve to acknowledge the re¬ 
ceipt. of your second favor of the 29th ult. which came to 
hand this morning, and we shall have the honor of further 
addressing you at as early a date as we possibly can man¬ 
age. 

There is no necessity, for the moment, of sending the 
certificates. 

As the matter will be advancing it may be well to send 
on the Power of Attorney, the form or tenor of which may 
influence as to the form of acts to be prepared here. 

We duly found in your favor the one certificate of two 
thousand dollars. 

A reference to the note added to our letter of the 22nd 
of September, will, we believe, show that we did not mean 
the price of 91 to cover the expense of commission upon 
interest and reimbursement. 

We have the honor to remain, sir, 

Your most obedient servants, 
(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN k SONS. 
Hon. Richard Rush, London . 



93 


No. 22. 

Messieurs Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, Oct. 6,1829. 

Sir : 

We refer to our respects of last mail—and have since 
been engaged in sketching out the various further partic¬ 
ulars which have to be settled previous to a positive en¬ 
gagement’s being taken with the public. 

While occupied therewith, it has plainly appeared to us 
that it would be more prudent to get the exact draft made 
out of the bond or agreement, which will have to be pass¬ 
ed between us, so that no difficulty or misunderstanding 
may arise afterwards. 

We have therefore furnished our lawyer with the needful, 
and he has promised to draw out the document, in a very 
few days. We shall then translate it, and send it on to 
you, and you may depend that not a day more will be tak¬ 
en, than will be absolutely required to do justice to the 
matter. 

You will then have before you, the exact obligations re¬ 
quired to be contracted for the Corporations, and if you as¬ 
sent to them, we may then proceed upon a firm basis. 
As the matter involves engagements with the public, you 
will deem it but proper that we wish all matters to be well 
understood before hand. 

The Subscriptions of the public once received, and the 
sanction of the King obtained, no changes or alterations 
in the smallest particular would then anymore be practi¬ 
cable. 

In the conversation we had on the subject with our law¬ 
yer, he made the observation, whether the Corporations 
had authority under the act of Congress, chiefly on account 
of the uncertainty, necessarily attached in some degree to 
the matter of the exchange, when gauranteed by them. It 
seems to us there can be no doubt, but the Corporations have 
the right to contract those additional obligations, if requir¬ 
ed to attain the object in view, and that the contracting of 
these additional obligations could not possibly effect the 
guardianship of the President, or release him from perform¬ 
ing his just and proper duties in seeing the towns fulfil in 
good faith, any engagements made with their creditors in 
Europe. 

Please however, have the goodness to say a word on the 


94 


subject, that we may fully meet any questions of that kind. 
Perhaps also, your power of attorney may give further ex¬ 
planations, and it will be desirable to receive that as early 
as convenient, with such other papers as you mentioned 
would accompany it; if you have a legal copy of the act of 
Congress, we shall also want that to be annexed to the 
agreements. 

We have the honor to remain, very respectfully, Sir, 
Your most obedient servants. 
(Signed) DANIEL CROMMEL1N & SONS. 

Hon . R . Rushy fa. fyc. fyc. London . 


No. 23 . 

Mr. Rush to Messieurs Crommelins. 

London, October 9, 1829,? 

32 Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 5 

Gentlemen : 

Your favors of the 3rd and 6th of this month have reach¬ 
ed me only this morning, owing to a detention of the mails. 
Their contents, it would seem, promise a satisfactory re¬ 
sult to our correspondence. 

On turning again to your letter and enclosure of the 22nd 
of September, I perceive that the price of 91, was not in¬ 
tended to cover the expense of commissions upon interest 
and reimbursement. 

This point shall not divide us; so that I now send, en¬ 
closed herewith ; 1st. My full powers from the three towns ; 
2nd. Authenticated copies of the laws of Congress author¬ 
izing the loan ; 3rd. The ordinances of the Corporations 
or Towns founded upon the laws of Congress; and, 4th. 
Statements of the assessed value of the property in each 
Town. These appear to me at present to comprise all the 
essential papers. By some omission the laws of Congress 
are not with the Alexandria papers ; but this can make no 
difference, as you have them with those both of Washing¬ 
ton and Georgetown. 

The form of the bond or agreement to be passed be¬ 
tween us, I leave to you, as you propose ; subject to my re¬ 
vision and assent on its arrival here ; concurring entirely 
in the opinion, that it ought to be so clear as to leave no 
room for future misunderstanding. 

There can be no doubt but that the towns may guaran¬ 
tee exchange to the lender. The law of Congress is in 



95 


general terms, but broad and clear. Its full latitude ne¬ 
cessarily leaves to the parties this and all other arrange¬ 
ments of detail, calculated to effect its main purpose. Be¬ 
sides, this point is one that, in legal contemplation, would 
be open to advantage on both sides ; for should exchange 
happen to turn in favor of the United States, whilst the 
loan is running, the towns would of course have the benefit 
of it. My powers are silent as to this and other arrange¬ 
ments of detail, but my instructions leave me at full liberty 
to come into it. Equally clear is it, that the towns may 
raise by loan any sum less in amount than a million and a 
half of dollars, so that the operation, in effect, does not ex¬ 
ceed the fixed limit of interest; it being a maxim in law 
that the greater includes the less. 

Waiting the favor of your further advices, I have the 
Honor to remain, very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Mess • Crommelin Sons . 


No. 24. 

Messieurs Cromraelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, October 17, 1829. 

Sir : 

We have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your se¬ 
cond favor of the 9th inst. accompanying the power of at¬ 
torney and further documents. 

Having just completed the Conventions, the one of whicli 
is for the public here and the other is of a more private na¬ 
ture, we beg to transmit them to you herewith, aware 
that you must wish to receive them, as soon as practicable. 

We shall by next mail, wait upon you with a few explan¬ 
atory remarks, and if there should therefore be any points 
in the Conventions,which do not meet with your immediate 
assent, we beg you will suspend your final opinion thereon, 
until receipt of our next addresses. 

The matter is complicated and of long duration, and 
many things have had to be looked to in the Conventions, 
that were either enjoined by law, or recommeded by the 
customs of the place. Regard has also had to be had to the 
form which the document would assume, when again turned 
into Dutch. 



96 


The substance does not differ from the terms mentioned 
before ; while bringing the matter on paper, the form alone 
has had to undergo some modification. 

The state of the money market is rather getting a little 
against us, not however such as to affect our reasonable 
hopes of successs. 

We have the honor to remain with great regards, 
Sir, your most obedient servants, 

(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN, & SONS. 
Hon . Richard Rush, #c. #c. London . 


B 

Enclosure to No. 24. 

FIRST DRART OF THE PUBLIC CONVENTION. 

The following Convention, betweeen— 

Richard Rush, Esq. citizen of the United States of 
America, late Secretary of State for the Treasury of the said 
United States, and now bearer of special powers of attor¬ 
ney from the Corporation of Washington, the Corporation 
of Georgetown and the Corporation of Alexandria, all in 
the District of Columbia, for certain therein hereafter men¬ 
tioned purposes, and which said powers of attorney are and 
remain annexed unto the original of this Convention, and 
so deposited at a public notary ; now in London, on the 
one side— 

And Daniel Crommelin & Sons, Merchants, dwelling 
in the city of Amsterdam, on the other side— 

Witnesseth— 

Whereas the Corporation of Washington, the Corpora¬ 
tion of Georgetown, and the Corporation of Alexandria, 
all within the District of Columbia, in the United States 
of America, have made certain subscriptions for shares of 
the stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, 
viz : the Corporation of Washington, a subscription of 
$1,000,000,—the Corporation of Georgetown of $250,000, 
—and the Corporation of Alexandria for $250,000,— and 
which subscriptions having been fully sanctioned and made 
valid by act of Congress of the 24th May, 1828, the said 
Corporations have by the same act of Congress been em¬ 
powered.— 

1st. To borrow as it may be deemed by them respect¬ 
ively, either necessary or expedient the needful money to 



97 


pay their respective aforesaid subscriptions, and to issue 
certificates of the debt so to be contracted ; and 2nd, To 
employ an agent or agents for the purpose of effecting on 
account of the Corporations such loan or loans of money, 
or of selling the certificates of the stock so created. 

All as detailed fully in the said act of Congress, which 
places the debts to be contracted in virtue of the said act 
under the special guardianship of His Excellency the Pres¬ 
ident at the time, of the United States, and a legal copy of 
which act of Congress is and remains annexed in the En¬ 
glish language to the original of this Convention, which is 
to be deposited at the Notary Public. 

And whereas in pursuance of the said authorisation, the 
said Corporations have actually created certificates of stock 
to the amount of their respective aforesaid subscriptions, 
say— 

The Corporation of Washington, certificates of various 
sums together, amounting to §1,000,000 

The Corporation of Georgetown, §250 000 

The Corporation of Alexandria, §250.000 

and have appointed the first underwritten to be their agent 
in Europe, there to sell or realize this stock, handing over 
to him to that effect the said certificates, and giving him 
their full and complete powers of attorney to act in their 
behalf as aforesaid. 

And whereas, further,the last underwritten have consent¬ 
ed under certain conditions to open a subscription for a loan 
at their counting house in Amsterdam, to the effect of rais¬ 
ing the needful sums of money for the abovementioned 
purposes; Now therefore the two parties underwritten have 
agreed and covenanted, and do agree and covenant by 
these presents, as follows :— 

Art. 1. 

The first underwritten, acting in his aforesaid capacity 
as Agent for the three Corporations, authorizes and empow¬ 
ers the last underwritten to open at their counting house, 
in behalf of the said Corporations a subscription to a loan 
of f3,750,000 Netherland currency, being the equivalent of 
§1,500,000, valuing each dollar at 250 cents Netherland 
currency, which debt of f3,750,000 is to be on account of, 
and to be borne by the Corporation of Washington for 
f2,500,000 by the Corporation of Georgetown for ffi25,000, 
13 


98 


and by the Corporation of Alexandria for fG25,000; pro¬ 
vided however, that the last underwritten will previously 
have obtained the requisite permission from Ii. M. the 
King of the Netherlands, failing which, the present Con¬ 
vention is annulled to all intents and purposes. 

Art. 2. 

The last underwritten will in course issue 3750 bonds of 
fl,000 Netherland currency, each numbered from 1 to 3750 
signed by them, and countersigned by a notary—each of 
which bonds will be at the charge of the Corporation of 
Washington for two-thirds, at the charge of the Corpora¬ 
tion of Georgetown for one-sixth, and at the charge of the 
Corporation of Alexandria for one-sixth. 

Art. 3. 

The joint takers of those 3750 bonds will in considera¬ 
tion of the money to be paid in by them, for the said bonds, 
become jointly the true and sole proprietors of the afore¬ 
said certificates to the aggregate amount of $ 1,500,000; 
and they will morever be direct and true creditors of the 
Corporations in their aforesaid respective proportions, for 
whatever amount may in addition to the amount to be re¬ 
ceived for them, at the Treasury of the United States, and 
at any time be wanted, to meet and discharge fully, and at 
the stated times the sums of money, which the Corporations 
do bind themselves by their aforesaid agent, to pay in Am¬ 
sterdam unto the holders of the said 3750 bonds, both for 
interest and principal as described and contracted hereafter 
in this Convention. 

Art. 4. 

The said 3750 bonds shall bear a fixed interest of 5 per 
cent.per annum, upon their nominal capital of flOOO Nether¬ 
land currency each ; the said interest will be payable in Am¬ 
sterdam, at the counting house of the last underwritten, or 
of their successors, from 8 months to 6 months, say on the 
1st January and 1st of July of each year. And when the said 
bonds therefore will be issued, there will be added to them 
a set of half-yearly dividend warrants, each of f25 Nether¬ 
land currency, payable in succession at the counting house 
of the last underwritten or of their cashiers, and the first 
of which dividend warrants will be payable 1st January, 
1831. 


93 


Art. 5. 

The lenders will be made bound to pay in the amount of 
their subscription, at the counting house of the last under¬ 
written in two instalments, one-half in the course of the 
month of January, 1830, and the balance in the month of 
July, 1830 ; they enjoying interest from the 1st day of the 
months, in which the payments are to be made against pro¬ 
visional receipts, which receipts will be exchanged for the 
bonds at the payment of the last instalment, or as soon af¬ 
ter as can be ; at the payment of the last instalments, the 
interest then due till the 1st of July, on the first payment, 
will be paid up and settled. 

Art. 6. 

The borrowers shall not have power, nor be bound to 
commence reimbursing the money borrowed until the year 
1841 —but commencing with that year | 7 th part of the 
amount now borrowed will annually have to be paid off and 
reimbursed. 

To this effect the last underwritten will in the month of 
May, 1841, and subsequently every year in that month de¬ 
termine by lot, in the presence of a public notary, which of 
the 3750 bonds will be paid off, the numbers of the bonds 
drawn out will be advertised in the public papers, and after 
the day upon which those bonds will be made reimbursable, 
no further interest will be due or payable upon them. 

Art. 7. 

The bonds so drawn out and made reimbursable will be 
payable to the holders thereof, on the 1st July ensuing, and 
following work days, at the counting house of the last un¬ 
derwritten, or of their cashiers, with flOOO Netherland cur¬ 
rency for each bond, and against delivery of the bonds with 
the unpaid dividend warrants—the said bonds and dividend 
warrants will then be cancelled in presence of the notary.. 

Art. 8. 

In order to ensure the due fulfilment of the obligations 
contracted in this present document, the blanks left in the 
original certificates of the Corporations will as soon as the 
loan is actually closed, be filled up by the first underwrit¬ 
ten, or by a person specially appointed by him thereunto, 
and made due to -— ,-——,->-'—? 






100 


“ The Trustees for the Proprietors of the stock”—bear¬ 
ing interest at the rate of per cent, per annum, from the 
1st July, 18?0, and reimbursable in succession, £^th part 
of the whole on the 1st January, 1841— a second 2Qth part 
on the 1st January, 1842 —and so on—the stock of each 
Corporation pro parte—a list of the certificates so made 
out will be signed by both contracting parties, and then an¬ 
nexed to each of the sets of this Convention. 

Art. 9 . 

The certificates so made out will be deposited in an iron 
chest to be left at the domicilium of a Notary, and to be 
furnished with four different padlocks, a key of one of 
which is to remain in the possession of each Trustee—the 
key of the chest itself remains with the Notary. 

Art. 10. 

Whereas to obviate the necessity in case of changes in 
the persons of the Trustess, of having in such cases the 
certificates cross the Ocean, and consequently run the risk 
of being lost; there have been no names of the Trustees at 
the time inserted into the certificates, it is now further stat¬ 
ed that the first Trustees will be A 

B 

C 

D 

Who are to have full power to receive by attorney at the 
Treasury of the United States, the interest and reimburse¬ 
ment that will accrue upon the above said certificates, and 
generally to do all that is requisite in the premises as good 
Trustees for the Proprietors of the stock—and 

That in case of demise of one or more of the before nam¬ 
ed Trustees, the survivors, or survivor, will assume another 
Trustee or Trustees, so that the number of four remain 
complete—and so by notarial act—a legal copy of which 
will be transmitted through the agent in the United States 
to each of the Corporations, and to the Treasury of the 
United States—and the so assumed Trustess, will jointly 
with those by whom they have been assumed have full 
power to receive by attorney, dividends and reimburse¬ 
ments—upon the certificates, and generally to do the need¬ 
ful in the premises, and this power of assumption will not 
cease or determine, except with the termination of the 
loan. 


101 


Art. 11. 

Ihe aforesaid Trustees will pass, and their successors in 
course of time continue to pass, the needful powers of at¬ 
torney upon the Branch Bank of the United States at Wash¬ 
ington, or upon such other corporate body or person as 
may in course of time, and with the concurrence and ap¬ 
probation of the said last underwritten,or theirsuccessors,be 
appointed as agent to receive the dividends, and reimburse¬ 
ments that will accrue upon the said certificates, and they 
will instruct such agent to remit the said dividends and re¬ 
imbursements to, and to follow therewith the instructions of 
the last underwritten, or their successors. 

Art. 12. 

Whereas the payment of interest and reimbursements 
upon the bonds to be issued in Amsterdam, must also be 
made in A. to the holders of the said bonds in Netherland 
currency, and whereas neither the said holders, nor the last 
underwritten are to be made passible of any loss resulting 
from the rates of exchange, or from depreciation of paper 
money in the United States, or of any loss upon, or of 
bills, or remittances howsoever made, by failures, ship¬ 
wrecks, or any such and like accidents, or of any commis¬ 
sions or guarantee to be earned by the Branch Bank, or by 
any other intermediate agent, nor of any risk whatsoever; 
but that all and every risk of whatever kind or nature it 
may be, is and remains now and in future and once for all 
on the account of the borrowers, who are not to be exon¬ 
erated from the obligations contracted with the holders of 
the bonds, until the requisite money be lodged in cash, in the 
hands of the last underwritten. And whereas on the other 
hand the said borrowers must enjoy the benefit of all sums 
of money, that may at any time accrue upon and out of the 
certificates, more than wanted to place in Amsterdam, the 
amount of guilders requisite for payment there of interest 
and reimbursement, and likewise must enjoy all benefit that 
may now and in future result from any favorable turn of 
the exchanges—Now therefore it is further agreed and cov¬ 
enanted— 

That the agent of the Trusteed will after having received 
the sums of money due upon the certificates, employ the 
whole, or if part be thought sufficient, then part only, to 


102 


make to the last underwritten such remittances in bills or 
otherwise, as will in good time net a sufficient sum in Am¬ 
sterdam, to meet the payment of interest and reimburse¬ 
ment next due : 

That if part only has been used for that purpose, and a 
surplus be left, as it will probably, such surplus shall then 
remain provisionally under the agent: 

That when a payment of interest, and later also for re¬ 
imbursement shall have been made in Amsterdam, the last 
underwritten will cause to be made out the account current 
of the Corporations : 

That if the remittances made with part or the whole of 
the amount received upon the certificates should not have 
netted an amount in Netherland currency, large enough to 
pay interest and reimbursement due at the time; but have 
left a deficiency, such deficiency will first be covered by 
remittances to be made by the agent with the surplus, if 
any there was still laying in his hands ; and the Corpora¬ 
tions will further, each pro parte, have to make immediate¬ 
ly to the Agent such further payment, as may be wanted 
to enable the said agent, fully to remit also free of expenses 
and risk to the last underwritten, the amount of such de¬ 
ficiency. 

On the other hand, if it shall appear from the said ac¬ 
count current, that the remittances made by the agent have 
been sufficient to make the needful net provision in Hob 
land, for interest and reimbursement due at the time, the 
said surplus will be forthwith paid out and returned to the 
Corporations, each proportionally, thus settling with the 
Corporations, each half year. 

Art. 13. 

Whereas, further, the original certificates might happen 
to be lost at sea, when sent over for reimbureement; and 
that delays might ensue therefrom—it is therefore agreed 
and covenanted to deviate in this respect, from the custom¬ 
ary forms observed at the Treasury ; and to stipulate that 
the Corporations do consent that the reimbursement will at 
the time be claimed from, and be made by the Treasury 
of the United States, upon the production of the powers of 
attorney of the Trustees at the time. 

As soon as the remittances will have been received by 
the last underwritten, and the bonds drawn out for the 


103 


year will have become payable as aforesaid, the certificates 
of which the reimbursement has been received, will in the 
presence and with the concurrence of the Notary, be tak¬ 
en out of the iron chest by the Trustees, signed by the said 
Trustees in dorso for acquittal, and handed over to the 
American Charge d’Affairs, or to any other person or per¬ 
sons, whom the Corporations may choose to appoint, against 
a receipt which will be deposited again in the iron chest, 
until the entire termination of this loan. 

Art. 14. 

The first underwritten having therefore in his aforesaid 
quality authorized the last underwritten, in their capacity 
of Directors of this loan, to receive the money from the 
lenders, to sign with the signature of their firm, the pro¬ 
visional receipts and the bonds, in which will be inserted 
and printed a translation made by a sworn translator of 
this present Convention; and which Convention is to be 
deposited at the Notary, who will countersign the bonds; 
the said first underwritten now further proceeds in his afore¬ 
said quality, as fully empowered agent of the Corporations 
of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, firmly to 
bind his constituents, the said Corporations of Washington, 
Georgetown, and Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, 
viz : each of them for their aforesaid share or proportion, 
as true debtors on the terms of this Convention, unto the 
holders jointly and severally of the said bonds to the amount 
expressed in Netherland currency, for principal and inter¬ 
est in the said bonds, submitting his said constituents, not 
only to that effect, to the jurisdiction of all judges or courts 
of justice, but also granting and acknowledging unto the 
said holders, jointly or severally, the right of privilege and 
security granted by the act of Congress of the 24th May, 
1828, to the lenders of money under that act. Surrogating 
as far as necessary the holders of the said bonds, jointly 
or severally into the claims or rights, which the Corpora¬ 
tions may each of them have or acquire upon the Chesa¬ 
peake and Ohio Canal Company—and finally engaging in 
behalf of his aforesaid constituents, that no circumstance, 
no that even (which God forbid) of a war between the Uni¬ 
ted States of America and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 
shall ever be a motive for not duly and honorably pro¬ 
ceeding in the correct fulfilment of all the obligations con¬ 
tracted bona fide in this Convention. 


104 


Art. 15. 

Finally the first underwritten does elect the domicilium 
citandi and exequendi of his aforesaid constituents in 
Amsterdam, at the office of the youngest Notary, at the 
time, consenting that all sommations, &c. be there done 
and held to be done validly in law and without. 

And have the aforesaid contracting parties, in witness of 
the above, set hereunto their hands and seals—the first 

underwritten in London, on the-, and the second 

underwritten in Amsterdam on the-, and has the 

present deed been made in-. 


c. 

Enclosure to No. 24 . 

FIRST DRAFT OF THE PRIVATE CONVENTION. 

Whereas, 

Richard Rush, Esq. Citizen of the United States of 
America, late Secretary of State for the Treasury of the 
said United States, and now bearer of Special Powers of 
Attorney from the Corporation of Washington, the Corpo¬ 
ration of Georgetown, and the Corporation of Alexandria, 
all in the District of Columbia, for certain therein men¬ 
tioned purposes, on the one side— 

And Daniel Crommelin & Sons, Merchants, dwelling 
in the City of Amsterdam, on the other side— 

Have passed a convention between them relating to a 
certain Loan for f3,750,000—which the last underwritten 
will make at their Counting House in behalf of the con¬ 
stituents of the first underwritten—and whereas there have 
been settled in that convention, which is considered as 
being here verbally inserted, all those conditions of said 
Loan which do concern the public, leaving to be settled 
between the first and last underwritten, all such further 
conditions as do more immediately concern the last under¬ 
written in their capacity of Bankers of this said Loan. 

Now therefore do the aforesaid contracting parties, with 
full reference to the aforesaid public convention, agree and 
covenant, as follows :— 

Art. 1. 

The subscription for the Loan will be opened at the 
Counting House of the last underwritten, as soon as the 
obtaining the permission of the King will allow it. 






105 


Art. 2. 

if the subscription should against expectation not attain 
the full amount of f3,750,000. but should reach more than 
three-fourths, the Loan will nevertheless be considered as 
made, and the 3750 bonds created in full. The bonds not 
subscribed for, will remain the property of the Corpora¬ 
tions, each in proportion to the amount they bear in the 
Loan, and those bonds will remain with Jhe last under¬ 
written to be by them successively disposed of; but the 
last underwritten can in no case be compelled to sell them 
under the price at which the bonds are sold to the first 
subscribers. 

Art. 3. 

The interest that may fall due upon the bonds so created, 
but not immediately disposed of, will as it falls due be 
carried by the last underwritten to the credit of the Cor¬ 
porations proportionately, and settled each half year in the 
half yearly account current, which the last underwritten 
are to furnish. 

Art. 4. 

The subscription to the nominal capital stock of f3,750, 
000, will be offered by the last underwritten to the public 

at-, and if three fourths or more gets subscribed for, 

the proceeds of the whole f3,750,000, will on receipt, ap¬ 
pear to the credit of the Corporations each proportion¬ 
ately, on the books of the last underwritten at the said 

price of-, under deduction however out of the last 

instalment of-, on the whole of the f3,750,000, nom¬ 
inal capital, which said charge of-, the last under¬ 

written will bring in account to the Corporations for all ex¬ 
penses of petitioning, brokerage, registration dues, stamps, 
paper, printing, lawyers’ fees, and all expenses whatsoever 
required for the creation of the Loan, including the com¬ 
mission of the last underwritten. 

Art. 5. 

The Corporations will proportionately be debited in 
account current for the amount of the bonds not imme¬ 
diately subscribed for at the same periods as they will be 
credited in account current for the proceeds of the whole 
Loan. 


14 




106 


When these bonds so held for the Corporations will be 
disposed of, their proceeds will be carried by the last un¬ 
derwritten to the credit in account current of the Corpo¬ 
rations proportionately. 

Art. 6. 

The last underwritten will credit the Corporations, pro¬ 
portionately for --, returned commission on the nominal 

amount of those bonds that are not immediately subscribed 
for, and they will not bring in that same charge of commis¬ 
sion again until the bonds are actually disposed of. 

There will be no further charge of brokerages, or any 
other further charge whatsoever made by the last under¬ 
written for the sale and disposal of these bonds so held. 

If these bonds can be sold higher than the subscription 
price, that benefit will of course be enjoyed by the Cor¬ 
porations. 

Art. 7. 

If against expectation, the King having given his per¬ 
mission for the Loan, there should be made by the revenue 
claims for more registration, or higher stamps than such as 
stated in the law of 31 May, 1824—in that case the deduc¬ 
tion for expenses stated in Art. 4, will not be obligatory on 
the last underwritten—they having assumed the duty pre¬ 
scribed in that article in their calculations of expenses; and 
it will then be at the option of the first underwritten to 
allow, or not, the additional charge, to which the last un¬ 
derwritten will state themselves to be entitled ; and if the 
first underwritten should not feel inclined to allow this 
extra charge, the whole of this, and of the public conven¬ 
tion will thereby ipso facto be void and null. 

Art. 8. 

The last underwritten are empowered to retain out of the 
last instalment the amount of 3| per cent, on the f3,750,000, 
nominal amount of the Loan to meet the 5 per cent, interest 
for 6 months on fl,875,000 that will be due the 1st July, 
1830, and 5 per cent, for 6 months on f3,750,000, that will be 
due 1st January, 1831—leaving the first dividend warrant 
which must be provided for, by remittance, that of the 1st 
July, 1831, and which will then be provided for by the divi¬ 
dends falling due in America, 1 October, 1830, and 1 Janua»- 
ry, 1831, saving always the obligation for the Corporations 


107 


to provide in course for the deficiency, if those dividends 
should prove insufficient. 

As there will on this footing be ample time left for the 
provision to be made in Europe, the agent in the United 
States will be instructed by the last underwritten to man¬ 
age the remittance to the most of the interest of the Cor¬ 
porations—having good care, however, to remit early 
enough that the remittances can be timely cashed pre¬ 
vious to the days appointed for the payment of interest or 
capital. Allowing thus the remittances out of the October 
and April dividends to be managed most leisurely, while 
those to be made out of the January and July dividends 
must be somewhat more urged. 

Art. 9. 

In case of losses of, or on remittances, it is well under¬ 
stood, that the last underwritten will apply for replacing 
those remittances to the Branch Bank, or to such other in¬ 
termediate agent as may be acting at the time, and that 
any charge for guarantee which may have to be paid on 
that account is to be borne by the Corporations all agree¬ 
ably to Article 12, of the public convention—this however 
in no case invalidating the primitive obligations of the 
Corporations. 

In case of protested bills, or such like losses, there be¬ 
ing no current opportunity here of drawing upon the Uni¬ 
ted States, the last underwritten will consequently, in most 
cases, have to wait for other remittances to come forward ; 
and if, in such cases, the last underwritten should, notwith¬ 
standing their being then perhaps not fully in cash for the 
payment next due, still make such payment to preserve the 
honor of the Corporations, they will then charge in account 
current 6 per cent, interest per annum upon their cash ad¬ 
vance, and be moreover entitled to charge an extra com¬ 
mission of 1 per cent, upon that said amount of their said 
uncovered cash advance. 

Art. 10. 

The balances which will remain to the credit of the Cor¬ 
porations in January, 1830, and in July, 1830, may be 
drawn for, or disposed of by the Corporations as they will 
see fit. 

As soon as the sanction of the King will be obtained, 
and the Loan finally closed for, the last underwritten will 


108 


give the needful advice to the Corporations, so they may 
immediately draw, which, if done directly, on the last un¬ 
derwritten will then entail no further expense whatever in 
Europe upon the Corporations. 

Art. 11. 

To facilitate however the drawing of the Corporations, 
the last underwritten will open credits in London and Pa¬ 
ris, to be made use of by the Corporations as their con¬ 
venience or interest may dictate—such credits to be at the 
risk and expense of the Corporations, unless the Corpora¬ 
tions should wish that the last underwritten should run the 
risk and bear the expense ; in which case, and on the Cor¬ 
porations stating their wish to that effect to the last under¬ 
written, the said last underwritten are willing to take all 
risks of the London and Paris houses, and of all bills to 
be remitted, and all expenses of bills brokerages, and 
stamps, and commission and postages, attending upon that 
circuitous drawing upon themselves, the said last under¬ 
written, against a charge of-, on the final guilder amount 

of the proportion so circuitously drawn for, leaving in such 
cases only the variations of the exchange pro or contra, on 
account of the Corporations. 

Art. 12. 

The last underwritten will be entitled to charge in ac¬ 
count current to the Corporations 1 per cent, commission 
upon the amount, Netherland currency, of the interest, 
and 1 per cent, commission upon the amount, Netherland 
currency, of the reimbursement, at the time ; charging the 
same each time in the half-yearly account current. 

The last underwritten will likewise be entitled to charge 
in those same half yearly accounts current all actually paid 
expenses of postages, brokerages and stamps, on the re¬ 
mittances to be received from the Branch Bank, or other 
agent at the time, likewise cost of advertisements and 
other similar small expenses, necessary for the due per¬ 
formance of the sundry obligations contracted by the Cor¬ 
porations during the running of this Loan, until it be 
finally liquidated and wound up. 

In all which aforegoing, the first underwritten has, in 
virtue of his full powers of attorney from his constituents, 
the Corporations of Washington, Georgetown, and Alex¬ 
andria, firmly and truly bound by these presents his said 


109 


constituents, unto the last underwritten ; and have the last 
underwritten equally firmly bound themselves by these 
presents unto the first underwritten in his said capacity, for 
the due and correct performance of their part of this con¬ 
vention ; in witness whereof, they have respectively set 
hereunto their hands and seals, viz : the first underwritten 
in London, on the-, and the last under¬ 
written in Amsterdam, on the-, and has 

the present deed been made in sextuple. 


No. 25. 

Mr. Rush to the Messrs. Crommelins. 

London, October 20, 1829, ) 

32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. £ 

Gentlemen : 

I have received this morning your letter of the 17th, 
covering a draft of the two instruments or conventions 
which you propose as necessary to carry into effect our 
views respecting the loan. 

These instruments I have read over; but they will re¬ 
quire a full and deliberate examination before I can come 
to a judgment on their contents. This examination they 
shall have from me, and with a desire to accede as far as 
possible to all the arrangements of form which the instru¬ 
ments embrace, so that the substantial ends heretofore 
stated between us, are preserved. I shall also wait the 
arrival of the further explanatory communication promised 
in your favor received to-day. 

I remain in the mean time, most respectfully, your obe¬ 
dient servant, RICHARD RUSH. 

Messrs. Crommelin and Sons. 


No. 26. 

Messrs. Crommelins to Mr. Rush; 

Amsterdam, Oct. 20, 1829. 

Sir . 

We refer to our respects of last mail by which we made 
free to transmit the sketch of the two conventions that will 
have to be passed between us. 

We now beg to add a few explanatory remarks which 
we hope and trust will lead to the matter being finally and 
satisfactorily settled—the conditions appearing to ua to be 
quite reasonable and moderate. 






no 


We have made some change in the private convention 
as detailed in the remarks, the first draft originated in 
our wish to serve the Corporations economically even at 
the risk of exposing ourselves to the unpleasant feelings 
which a public failure would create ; but the state of the 
money market is not improving (interest on deposites be¬ 
ing 4 per cent, now, while it was 2J this Summer) and we 
apprehend it will continue to grow more unfavorable still 
for a while to come. We believe, therefore, that the in¬ 
terest of the Corporations requires that we should move 
in the business here, as speedily as the case will admit of, 
and we have in consequence finally again come to the plan 
of a private subscription, which acts quicker, safer, and 
greatly increases the chances of our placing the whole if 
you wish it. 

When we shall have your assent, we shall immediately 
transcribe one set on stamped paper and send it over, and 
then proceed in the matter with all speed. 

We have the honor to remain, respectfully Sir, your 
most obedient servants. 

(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. 

Hon. Richard Rush, &c. &c. &c. London. 


D. 

Enclosure to No. 26. 

EXPLANATORY REMARKS ON THE PUBLIC CONVENTION. 

Art. 6. 

We perceive that 3,750 is not divisible by 20, it will be 
the same, however, to the public here to have the reim¬ 
bursement run twenty five years, and this making the 
average duration of the loan 22j years, will also make the 
charges proportionally lighter. 

We suppose twenty five years will suit the number of 
the certificates, making the reimbursement for Washington 
40,000 dollars a year, and for Georgetown and Alexandria 
10,000 dollars a year each. 

Art. 3. 

The filling up of the certificates to the Trustees without 
adding names, liable to frequent changes while the loan 
Tuns, has been deemed the best plan—the same plan we 
must suppose to be adopted frequently when public insti¬ 
tutions, for instance, invest money in Stocks. 



Ill 


Mr. Rush will have the goodness to see whether some 
additional proof or form may be required for the acting 
Trustees to justify their quality. 

The filling up 51 per cent interest in the certificates, it is 
evident, causes only a temporary deposit of the Corporations 
operating as a security to the lenders, by extending the im¬ 
mediate guardianship of the President, providing to a cer¬ 
tain amount ready funds for charges and contingencies and 
facilitating the half yearly settlements. 

The Corporations, however,positively contract only a 5 
per cent debt; and the moment it is ascertained that the net 
amounts required have been provided for, the deposit, or 
the balance thereof, is immediately returned, as fully ex¬ 
plained in Article 12. 

Art. 11. 

There must be added at the end of this Article — 

“ The first offer of this Agency will be made, conse- 
“ quently, by the Corporations to the aforesaid Branch 
c# Bank of the United States at Washington, with ear- 
“ nest endeavors to come to a satisfactory conclusion 
“ with that said establishment. 

“ All charges or commissions of the said Branch Bank, 
11 or of any other intermediate agent, will be by them 
“ brought in account and charged to the Corporations 
“ pro parte, and in no case charged to, or claimed from 
“ the Trustees, the last underwritten, or the holders of 
“ the 3,750 Bonds.” 

Art. 13. 

This could not be managed otherwise, as the lenders 
here could of course not part with the certificates until 
reimbursed here, the loan being contracted here—nor can 
any inconvenience or risk result from it to the Corpora¬ 
tions with the precautions taken in their behalf, as stated 
towards the end of the Article ; nor can the Treasury of 
the United States in this particular case make difficulty, it 
seems, about this deviation from customary practice, en¬ 
forced by the circumstances of the case. 

Art. 15. 

This is customary in all similar cases. 



112 


E. 

Enclosure to No. 26. 

EXPLANATORY REMARKS ON THE PRIVATE CONVENTION. 

Art. 1. 

To be changed as follows, that it may accord with the 
changes in Art. 4. 

« The last underwritten will open at their Counting house 
“ a private subscription for the stock of this loan, as 
“ soon as the obtaining the permission of the King will 
“ allow it, or sooner conditionally, if they shall deem it 
“ advisable, with the fluctuating state of the money 
“ market.’’ 

Art. 2. 

The proportion of £ths may be changed by Mr. Kush, 
as he may see fit. We have inserted that clause and in 
that proportion— 

1. Because we do not suppose Mr. Rush would let the 
whole matter fall through for the sake of some small de¬ 
ficiency— 

2. Because if the Corporations did even retain some pro¬ 
portion like ^th, there is a chance that it might turn to 
the interest of the Corporations, as we should proba¬ 
bly gradually sell off the bonds above the subscription 
price— 

3. Because the instalments being made rather sooner than 
Mr. Rush would wish, although not more so than re¬ 
quired to find favor with the public, this clause affords 
the means of in effect retarding one instalment, the 
Corporations enjoying interest until the day the bonds 
are actually sold, and which may be delayed awhile if 
the Corporations do not want the whole in 1830. 

At the end — 

u Under the price at which the bonds are sold to the 
“ first subscribers,”— must be changed into , 

“ Under the price of the public subscription day here- 
“ after mentioned in Art. 4. 

Art. 4. 

The words u to the Public ” to be altered into u to the 
“ Subscribers ”— 

First Blank to be filled up 96, 

Second - * 96, 


113 


Third - . 41 , 

Fourth, - - 4 J, 

and to be added at the end of Art. 4 — 

The subscription mentioned in the beginning of this 
u Article, it is well understood, is a private subscription 
“ which the last underwritten will offer to such Brokers 
“ and Stock* dealers as they see fit; and as it is probable 
u that they will afterwards hold a public subscription 
“ day at a somewhat higher rate for accouut of the pri- 
“ vate subscribers, it is equally well understood, that 
“ whether such public subscription at a higher rate does 
“ actually succeed or not, such does in no manner con- 
“ cern or affect the Corporations who, after the last Un- 
“ derwritten, will have declared that the private sub- 
“ scription has succeeded in manner aforesaid, will have 
“ thereby secured for the Stock the price of 96 gross, 
“or 91y net, always saving the final sanction of the 
“ King.” 

We had contemplated to offer the loan direct to the 
public, thereby effecting a saving for the Corporations in 
the price; but the state of the money market has rather 
grown less favorable, and we do finally think some saving 
in the price would not compensate— 

1 The most unpleasant possibility of a public failure — 
even if the private subscription did not succeed, the 
credit of the Corporations would not suffer; while it 
would, in case of a public failure— 

2 Nor the loss of time during which we must continue to 
run the chances of the changes in the money market 
for which the worst time of the year is coming on. If we 
proceed on the plan of a public subscription, we must 
wait until we have the King’s sanction; whereas with 
a private subscription we may conditionally make sure 
of the matter as soon as the conventions are signed. 
We repeat that we have little or no doubt but the pri¬ 
vate subscription will succeed to full satisfaction. 

Art. 6. 

The blank to be filled up 2 . 

Art. 7. 

This is merely a clause of prudence, there being in fact 
not the least apprehension of such additional charge. 

15 





114 


Art. &. 

It may be well to direct the attention of Mr. Rush to 
the loss of interest which results to the Corporations from 
our retaining here 2J per cent interest for the six months in¬ 
terest. on f3,750,000from 1 st July, 1830,to 1st January,! 831, 
the interest in America notwithstanding also running from 
1st July. This, however, is so entirely an unavoidable 
consequence of the loan being made in Europe, that it is 
perhaps needless to dwell upon it. The money must of 
course have time to travel from the United States to Am¬ 
sterdam, and being generally in bills st 60d. sight, and 
otherwise occasionally subject to delays, the dividends 
must of course be paid in the United States by the Corpo¬ 
rations, and put in train of being remitted a while before 
needed for payment to the bond holders. The matter also 
would else not work well at the reimbursement. The 
Corporations reimburse on 1st January; but we do not re¬ 
imburse here until 1st July, and have of course to pay in¬ 
terest until that date—Unless, therefore, the dividends in 
the United States are set in train of anticipated payment 
and of anticipated remittance, it is clear that there would 
be no funds here for the last six months. In the manner 
we have now arranged this loss of interest, which is una¬ 
voidable, it will all work regularly—the Corporations 
cease paying interest kn the United States the day they pay 
off the certificates, and we continue notwithstanding to 
have provision made to us until we reimburse here. 

We may add, also, that it is advisable to assume rather 
ample time for the transmission of dividends and reim¬ 
bursement, the honor of the Corporations being at stake in 
making provision in time, and communications not being 
always as easy and rapid as at present. During the late 
American war, we frequently received letters three and 
four months old. It will, moreover, allow the Agents in 
usual times, to manage the remittances to the greatest in¬ 
terest of the Corporations. 

The charge which this unavoidable loss of interest en¬ 
tails upon the loan, also, is not great: reduced in the same 
shape of a per centage of interest, we find it is little more 
than 1 per mille additional interest, yearly, for the 22| 
years. 


115 


Art. 11. 

Blank to be filled up 1^-. 

This article is merely added for the convenience of the 
Corporations, and to enable them to derive full advantage 
from the exchanges. 


No. 27. 

Mr. Rush to Messrs. Crommelins. 

London, October 23,1829, > 

32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place $ 

Gentlemen: 

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 
20th instant, with the enclosures which it contained. 

I had fully reflected, since my last, upon the matter of 
the two Conventions, and although acceding to them, in 
the main, had prepared some modification of some of the 
clauses to submit to you ; particularly of that by which the 
Corporations will incur a loss of interest in the beginning. 
Under this last head, I had intended to propose, that the 
first instalment should be paid on the first of April, and the 
second on the first of October next, and no interest com¬ 
mence until the first of April. 

But since your letter of the 20th, and its explanatory 
enclosures, I am content, on the whole, to forego the alter¬ 
ations I had intended to urge. 

In pursuing this course I am greatly influenced by your 
representations of the state of the money market with you, 
at the existing moment, and your opinions of it prospec¬ 
tively. Upon the former I have unbounded reliance, and 
pay every respect to the latter. I am, therefore, willing 
that the agreement should be closed between us, without 
throwing ourselves longer upon the contingencies of time, 
which a prolongation of our correspondence would neces¬ 
sarily lead to. 

Making the operation depend upon a private subscrip¬ 
tion, as explained in your letter of the 20th, is far more 
agreeable to me than as it stood before; as a failure under 
a public subscription would have acted injuriously upon 
the credit and dignity of the towns, which 1 am bound to 
cherish. 

The clause giving validity to the operation, though less 
than the whole sum should be subscribed by one fourth, is 
in no degree objectionable with me. 



116 


Having said thus much, 1 will only for the present add, 
that if you will send over the Conventions to me duly pre¬ 
pared, as explained and amended by your letter and enclo¬ 
sures of the 20th, I will be ready to sign and execute them 
on my part. 

I will also forward the certificates by Tuesday’s mail, if 
practicable, remaining, 

Most respectfully, 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Messrs. Crommelin and Sons. 


No. 28. 

Mr. Rush to Messrs. Crommelins. 

London, October 26, 1829, > 

32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. $ 

Gentlemen : 

My last letter to you was on the 23d, and my last but 
one on the 20th of this month. The present letter will be 
accompanied by the certificates, as promised, which Mes¬ 
sieurs Gowan and Marx will forward for me by the steam¬ 
boat to Rotterdam ; and, through their correspondent in 
that city, Messieurs Codings and Maingy, you will, I hope, 
receive them as soon, or nearly as soon, as this letter gets 
to hand. 

To fill up the certificates to the Trustees, without ad¬ 
ding names liable to frequent changes while the loan runs, 
will certainly in my opinion be the best plan, as intimated 
in your explanatory remarks on the public Convention. 
Indeed, this plan seems unavoidable to secure the main 
object, or at all events to save gneat trouble; as, by the 
law, there can be no transfer of the certificates as signed 
by the towns, when once duly issued, except at the proper 
offices of the towns, personally or by attorney. 

But I am uninformed as to the names of all the Trus¬ 
tees, and to guard against error on this and other formal 
points in the filling up, for they will be but formal after 
the substantial points are settled by the Conventions be¬ 
tween us ; and also to prevent delays, I have judged it 
best to leave the filling up with you. To this end, I have 
taken the liberty to enclose a power of attorney that I 
have prepared, and had executed before the Lord Mayor 
of London. I send all the certificates, but you will be 
pleased to return me such of them as, by your plan of fil- 



117 


img up, or otherwise, may not be wanted; for, of course 
the filling up will not go beyond the sum which the towns 
actually borrow, and in no case exceed the aggregate sum 
appearing at present on the face of the certificates. In 
the Washington and Alexandria parcels will be found a few 
extra certificates that were signed to guard against acci¬ 
dents, which will also be returned if not wanted. 

It does not appear to me that any additional proof will 
be required for the acting Trustees to justify their quality, 
since their possession and ownership of the certificates, 
will be their ample warrant. These will form the basis 
that will sustain their own derivative acts; which will, 
moreover, be naturally facilitated by the faith and con¬ 
fidence which the Trustees, by their own standing, will 
find with the public. 

You will be pleased to transmit me a list of the certifi¬ 
cates after you have filled them up, should the loan be 
raised, denoting their respective numbers, dates and sums, 
and the persons or Trustees in whose favor they will be fill¬ 
ed up, so that I may cause it to be deposited with the Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury of the United States, as soon as prac¬ 
ticable. The law says that it should be deposited within 
ten days. This was a point considered before I came 
away, but as it is plainly one intended for the satisfaction 
of the lender, he making no objection, it is of no import¬ 
ance. The law forces no one to do an impossibility, and 
the loan being negotiated in Europe, as was previously 
known to the Secretary of the Treasury, to deposit the list 
as soon as practicable will sufficiently meet the true and 
only object of the law in this particular, viz. the more firm 
security of the lender. 

Should the loan be raised, I shall also have to ask the 
favor of four copies or sets of each of the Conventions, in 
addition to the single one of each, as promised in your let¬ 
ter of the 20th instant. These four copies, to be each 
executed by you in equal and due form, that I may execute 
them in the same way, and send one to each of the three 
towns, and the fourth to be deposited with the Secretary 
of the Treasury. The fifth copy I must reserve to take 
over myself, to guard against the possible loss of those 
that will be sent. 

Allow me to add, that should there be any difficulty in 
obtaining the sanction of the King of the Netherlands to 


118 


the loan, and it be supposed that the good offices of Mr, 
Hughes, our Charge d’Affaires, could be of any avail, I 
doubt not that he would freely interpose them, as the pub* 
lie statutes of the United States upon which the ope* 
ration is founded, are well known to him. 

I have the honor to remain, &c. &c. &c. 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Messrs. Crommelin and Sons. 


F. 


Enclosure io No. 28. 

Power of Attorney from Mr, Rush to Messrs . Crommelins, 
Whereas, the Corporation of the City of Washington 
in the District of Columbia, being duly authorized there* 
to by an act of the Congress of the United States of Amer¬ 
ica, passed on the 24th of May, 1828, has constituted in 
the manner prescribed by the said act, certain certificates 
of stock, in sums of five hundred dollars, one thousand 
dollars, and two thousand dollars, amounting in the whole 
to the sum of one million of dollars ; and the Corporation 
of the town of Georgetown in the said District, has con¬ 
stituted under the said act certain certificates of stock, ap¬ 
portioned in the same sums, amounting in the whole to the 
sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and the 
Corporation of the town of Alexandria in the said District, 
has constituted under the said act certain certificates of 
stock apportioned in sums of five hundred dollars, and one 
thousand dollars, amounting in the whole to the sum of two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and blanks have been left 
in all the certificates aforesaid for the names of the persons 
to whom, when sold, it was intended they should be duly is* 
sued for the purpose of raising, by loan, certain sums of 
money authorized by the act of Congress aforesaid, to be 
borrowed by the said Corporations for the purposes therein 
mentioned : And I, Richard Rush, of the City of Washing¬ 
ton aforesaid, but now in London, am fully empowered by 
the said City and Towns to fill up the said blanks with the 
name or names of any or all such person or persons, as 
might be necessary and proper to give to the said certifi¬ 
cates due effect under the act aforesaid, and to change the 



119 


apportionment of the sums as at present inserted in the 
said certificates, keeping always within the limit of their 
aggregate amount, and to make all necessary insertions as 
to dates :— 

Now therefore be it known to all to whom these presents 
shall come, that I, the said Richard Rush, in virtue of my 
full power as above, do hereby authorize and depute the 
house of Daniel Crommelin and Sons, of Amsterdam, to fill 
up the said blanks in my stead, and also to change the ap¬ 
portionment of the said sums, if necessary, and to insert 
all necessary dates: Provided, always, that the aggregate 
amount of the sums as at present expressed in the said 
certificates by each Corporation on its own account, be not 
exceeded : Provided, also, that no sum be inserted in any 
one of the certificates for a less amount than one hundred 
dollars : And provided further, that in the said filling up, 
and changes, and insertions, the said Daniel Crommelin 
and Sons have reference to the terms of two certain con¬ 
ventions or agreements, made between them and the said 
Richard Rush, acting on behalf of the City and Towns 
aforesaid, of and concerning the aforesaid loan, and bear¬ 
ing date the-, 1829 ; it being well under¬ 

stood that this power of substitution is given for the pur¬ 
pose of carrying into full and just effect the said conven¬ 
tions, without departing from them. 

In witness of all which, I have hereunto set my hand 
and seal, at London, this 26th day of October, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine. 

R. R. [Seal.] 

Signed and sealed in the presence of two witnesses. 

N. B. The probate of the Lord Mayor was obtained, in 
due form, to the above instrument. 


No. 29. 

Messrs, Croromelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, Oct. 27th, 1829. 

Sir : 

We have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
esteemed favor of the 23d instant, and have taken due note 
of the contents. 




120 


We beg, in consequence, to wait upon you herewith 
with one set of the Conventions, which we have just been 
able to get ready. Both may be signed by you on one 
and the same day. When received back from you we shall 
then sign them here. 

We have not filled up as yet at the end, the number of 
copies, not being quite sure as yet how many we shall 
want. That may be filled up afterwards. Please in the 
meanwhile, however, mention to us how many copies yon 
wish to have for you. We shall send a full set to the 
Treasury. 

The time of reimbursement has also had to be left open 
until we can ascertain the division which the certificates will 
allow ; if you should, therefore, not have sent them on 
pray let us have a list. We cannot move at all here in 
the asking of the permission of Government until all those 
points are fully settled, not the least change being allowed 
after the sanction is given, without another recurrence 
to the King, to whom we have to submit a copy of the 
public convention annexed to our petition. 

We have finally deemed best to leave open in the pri¬ 
vate convention the subscription price, because the turn 
which the money market has been taking is not favorable. 
There has been much speculation in Stocks lately, and 
money has already advanced to 4^ per cent, and we appre¬ 
hend will go higher. We regret, therefore to have to say that 
we begin also to apprehend that the bonus of 4 per cent 
will not be sufficient. At this moment we believe it would 
be taken at 5 per cent, making the subscription price 95 
instead of 96, as we proposed in our last to fill up the 
blank. Pray consider whether and what latitude you can 
give us ? We deem it needless to say that we shall strive 
to remain within your limit, if at all possible. The mo¬ 
ment is not propitious in our money market, and if other 
considerations did not militate against it, we could wish 
that the whole matter could lay over until Spring, or at 
least some time after New Year, when the pressure rather 
habitual in the money market in November and December, 
usually changes for a better feeling. We still continue, 
however, to think that at 95 we may succeed, and if you 
cannot come lower than 96, we shall give the matter the 
trial. 


121 


We hope to have your answer on Monday next, and are 
busy in the meanwhile preparing the necessary papers in 
Dutch for the subscription. 

We propose leaving the making out of the other copies 
of the conventions until the loan be contracted for. 

We have the honor to remain, very respectfully, sir, 
Your most obedient servants, 

(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. 
Hon. R. Rush,<£zc. &c. &c. London. 

P. S. We deem it superfluous to add, that nothing is to 
transpire here until we open the public subscriptions. 
There would be an opposition else, on which we could 
better explain verbally ; and it is on that account, also, 
that the sooner we can move the better. 


No. 30. 

Mr. Rash to the Messieurs Crommelins. 

London, October 30, 1829, ) 
32 Charlotte Street, Portland Place. > 

Gentlemen : 

I am favored with your letter of the 26th instant, trans¬ 
mitting the two conventions for my signature, which I 
herewith return signed and executed in due form. 

I beg to refer you to my letter of the 27th, by which 
you will see that the certificates have been sent. They 
went by the Rotterdam steamboat of Wednesday morning, 
and I am happy to infer from your favor received to-day, 
that should they reach you safely, as l trust they will, time 
will have been saved by this early transmission of them. 

Of the conventions, I continue to wish the number of 
sets mentioned in my letter of the 26th, viz: five of Cacb, 
should the loan be raised ; it being my wish to send one 
set for deposite at the Treasury Department, in addition 
to the set which, under the law, you also will deposite 
there. 

I hope that the operation may succeed according to our 
past understanding, as I am content with the terms, but do 
not feel myself able to come lower than 96. 

Various considerations prevail with me against any post¬ 
ponement of the matter in hand until the spring, or even 
until after new year. As at present advised, I should pre¬ 
fer, to this course, a report of my proceedings to the corm 
16 



122 


munities I represent; leaving those communities open to 
any new course; subject to whatever order Congress 
might take on the occasion, should the matter come to 
be laid again before that body. The formal blanks left in 
the conventions I have signed, you will be pleased to fill 
up as necessary, under the terms agreed. 

With great respect, 

I have the honor to remain, &c. &c. 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Mess • Daniel Crommelin, & Sons. 


No. 31. 

Messieurs Crommelin to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, Oct. 31, 1829. 

Sir : 

We beg your reference to our respects of the 27th inst. 
and have since your esteemed favor of the same day. 

We have duly found therein your power of attorney upon 
us for the filling up of the certificates ; which we trust will 
answer every purpose. Should we succeed in raising the 
loan, we shall duly use the said power, and return such 
certificates as will not be wanted, in the way you direct. 

We must however take up part of your esteemed favor ; 
say the extract given at foot. 

You there desire us to state in the List , not only the 
numbers , dates and sums, which will all be complied with, 
but also the persons or trustees : this coupled with the ex¬ 
pression you make use of in an earlier part of your same 
letter; say “ But as 1 am uninformed of the names of the 
trustees,” makes us apprehensive of some misunderstand¬ 
ing on this head—it being clearly stated however in Art. 8, 
and Art. 10, of the Public Convention, that no names of 
the trustees will be inserted in the certificates; but that 
the certificates will literally be filled up as stated in Arti¬ 
cle 8, to “ The Trustees for the proprietors of this stock.” 

The certificates being thus made due to the trustees at 
the time ; and the Convention declaring the names of the 
first trustees, and providing how those first trustees are to 
assume other trustees in case of demise, we cannot possi¬ 
bly think that there can be any difficulty. We must dwell 
on this subject as it is one of primary importance, and that 
we must be sure that the powers of the trustees, whoso- 



123 


ever they are at the time, (provided their right to act as 
trustees be substantiated either by their being named in the 
Public Convention, in which we shall fill up the names 
when finally executed, or afterwards by the Notarial act of 
assumption, that their powers of attorney, we say, be duly 
respected at the Treasury—which is the essential point in 
this matter. The filling up of the certificates to the trus¬ 
tees, and not as usual to A and B , as trustees , being perhaps 
some little deviation in form; it is obvious however, the 
thing must be arranged in that way—for if the names of 
the trustees were in the certificates, all the certificates 
would have to cross and re-cross the ocean at every demise 
of any one of the trustees, as we wish to have always 
four acting trustees. 

We hope you will have given us some little latitude in 
consequence of our respects of last mail—having been 
fully confirmed, by preparatory conversations, in our ap¬ 
prehensions that 95 per cent, is the highest rate at which 
the private subscribers are likely to come forward freely. 

The new 4 per cent. Austrian loan will very soon be in 
the market here also ; and we believe there are other calls 
on the money market in contemplation—this however, of 
course, entirely confidential—that Austrian loan has been 
brought out at Vienna by the contractors at 86 per cent; but 
the government has had to give it much lower to the con¬ 
tractors— it is said (but we do not vouch for it,) as low as 
77; and we continue therefore to believe it for the interest 
of the Corporations to close if we can. 

We note that you will wish five copies of the conven¬ 
tions for your own use, and shall send them on. We shall, 
of course, delay making all those copies until the loan be 
closed and sanctioned. 

We have not the least doubt but the sanction of the 
King will be readily obtained. We shall, in case of difficul¬ 
ty or demur, avail ourselves of Mr. Hughes’s, good offices. 

We shall also have to apply in course to Mr. Hughes 
for the authentication of sundry signatures on the powers 
and copies of acts transmitted. 

We hope to have the honor of hearing from you on 
Monday, returning the conventions ; and have meanwhile 
that of remaining respectfully, sir, 

Your most obedient Servants, 
(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN, & SONS. 


124 


(The certificates have just come to hand from Rotter¬ 
dam.) 

To the Hon . Richard Rush, <frc. London . 

Extract. 

“ You will be pleased to transmit me a list of the ccr- 
u tificates after you have filled them up, should the loan be 
“ raised, denoting their respective numbers, dates, and 
“ sums, and the persons in whose favor they will be filled 
“ up,” &c. __ 


No. 32. 


Messieurs Crommelins to Mr.Rush. 


Amsterdam, Nov. 3, 1829, 

Sir : 

We beg to confirm our respects of the Slst, and have to 
acknowledge receipt of your esteemed favor of the 30th 
ultimo, returning us the signed conventions, in which we 
shall fill up the needful and also sign them. 

We note that you cannot come lower than 90—and we 
are in consequence going on with the trial at that rate. We 
shall be pleased if we may next post day be able to give 
you pleasing accounts. 

We have received the certificates, and inclose a list, 
such as we formed, end now hold them. The number 25 
will suit for division ; and we have, in consequence, made 
the reimbursement run 25 years, of which please take note. 

We remain with great regard, Sir, 

Your most obedient Servants, 

(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. 

Hon. R. Rush, London . 


P. S. We had this evening a conference with our lead* 
ing subscribers; and if it leads to any thing in time, we 
shall still address you a line by the late mail of this night. 


No. S3. 

Messieurs Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, November 3, 1829- 

Sir: 

We refer to our respects of this day by the Steam boat, 
and have but a few minutes left for the mail—and wish to 
avail ourselves thereof to say, that we are making good pro- 




12f> 


gress in the subscriptions, and trust by next mail to be able 
to advise you that we have closed. Money has been grow¬ 
ing rather more abundant these days and stocks rising, which 
has assisted us. 

We have the honor to remain with great regard, Sir, 
Your most Gbedient servants. 
DANIEL CROMMEL1N & SONS. 

Hon. Richard Rush, <frc. #c. London . 


No. 34. 

Mr. Rush to Messieurs Crommelins. 

London, November 6, 1829,? 

32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 3 

Gentlemen : 

Your esteemed favors of the 31st of October, and the 
two of the third of this month, have all got to hand ; the 
first yesterday, the two others this morning. 1 am very 
glad to find that all the certificates reached you safely. 

There will be no misunderstanding as to the manner of 
filling them up ; though perhaps the wording of the parts 
of my letter to which you refer in yours of the 31st, may 
have been calculated at first to give such an impression. 
Certainly, they are to be filled up as stipulated in the 8th 
article of the public Convention, viz: to “ the Trustees 
for the Proprietors of the stock and the Trustees will 
be kept up as provided in the 10th article. Some name or 
names must, it is true, appear at the Treasury, that it may 
be known there who is entitled to receive payments. This 
is all that the Treasury will need to know in this respect; 
and this it will know by the fact of your own names being 
affixed to the public Convention, which will be of record at 
the Treasury. There can be no doubt but that the pow¬ 
ers of attorney of the Trustees, your own for example, or 
of whomsoever may be the Trustees at the time, under ar¬ 
ticle 10, will be respected at the Treasury. The Conven¬ 
tion itself, the primary instrument, will thus be explanato¬ 
ry of the mode in which the certificates are to be filled up ; 
and all that I shall want will be, a list of them as they will 
actually have been filled up according to the Convention. 

In the power of attorney sent on to you, I perceive that 
I omitted to say that you would insert the necessary nwm- 
bers on the certificates as well as the dates; but the ap- 



126 


portionment of the sums being changed, the numbers of the 
certificates will necessarily be changed too ; and you will 
as matter of course make the numbers conform, in the list 
that you will send me. 

I notice what is said in your favor of the 3rd instant, first 
written, as to the reimbursement running 25 years, which 
is satisfactory. 

Waiting your advices by next mail, and trusting that they 
will announce a good issue, 

I remain, as always, &c. &c. 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Messieurs Crommelin & Sons. 


No. 35. 

Messieurs Crominelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, November 7, 1829. 

Sir : 

We beg your reference to our respects of the 3rd per 
steamboat and mail, and have now the pleasure of advising 
you of our having succeeded in placing for account of the 
Corporations, the whole of the 3750 bonds, by private sub¬ 
scription at 96 per cent,—say 96 per cent, agreeably to 
the terms of the Convention—the papers are all at the 
Hague already, and we trust that we shall soon receive the 
permission of the King. 

One of the subscribers it seems has not kept the secret, 
and the matter has grown more or less public—we should 
have preferred that it had remained secret, until we offer¬ 
ed the stock publicly, but it is of no consequence, and it 
cannot be helped, nor did we in fact expect it would re¬ 
main secret when once known to sundry Brokers. 

We have, after all, hit on a good moment for the private 
subscriptions. On Monday evening our hopes of success 
still were faint; but we prevailed upon our leading sub¬ 
scriber, and the others followed. The incipient publicity 
has even been of use to us, as the Brokers and Stockdealers 
to whom we had made our application, saw the necessity of 
coming forward at once and closing the matter before it got 
more talked over. 

We are much gratified in having brought things to this 
point, and hope all will now further move smoothly. 

We shall be obliged to you for a few more copies of the 



327 


printed “ Remarks,” and we should also be much obliged to 
you, if you would let us have the letter from Mr.Ingham, and 
any other original letter or document, bearing upon the 
case that you can spare, not for the sake of using them, 
but the the matter being so far concluded here, those let¬ 
ters, &c. can be of interest to no one as much as to our¬ 
selves, to keep laying with us as the elements of the moral 
evidence, which established our belief in the entire safety 
of the loan—the above request we trust will be viewed by 
you in its proper light, and we flatter ourselves be readily 
acquiesced in, assuring you that we shall consider your com¬ 
pliance as a particular favor. 

We shall expect to have the honor of hearing from you, 
in reply to our last, and remain respectfully, Sir, your most 
obedient servants, 

(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. 

Hon . R . Rush, fyc. #*c. fyc. London . 


No. 36. 

Mr. Rush lo Messieurs Crommelins. 

London. November, 10, 1829,") 
32 Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 5 

Gentlemen : 

Your letter of the seventh instant got to hand this morn¬ 
ing, and I learn with great satisfaction from it, that the 
whole loan has been taken by private subscription. 

You will I hope have received by or before this time, 
my letter of the sixth. The further papers to which you 
allude, I will be happy to send by the next mail. 

I have the honor to remain, &c. &c. 

RICKARD RUSH. 

Messieurs Crommelin & Sons. 


No. 37. 

Mr. Rush to Mesieurs Crommelins. 

London, November 12, 1829, ) 
32 Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 5 

Gentlemen : 

In pursuance of the wishes expressed in your letter of 
the 7th instant, I now enclose Mr. Ingham’s letter, with 
half a dozen copies of the printed Remarks which I drew 
up on the loan. 




128 


i have added authentic copies of the other correspond¬ 
ence between the Treasury Department and the house in 
this city to which Mr. Ingham’s letter is addressed. 

I have various other documents bearing upon the general 
subject of our correspondence, especially on the canal; 
such as surveys, estimates, official reports, maps, public 
laws, &c. &c. Most of them are in print, and were published 
by order of Congress or the State Legislatures. I do not 
send them, because they are bulky, and because the set that 
1 brought over has got a little mutilated, and even a little 
broken, by frequent use and lending here ; all not being, 
at this moment, in my possession. But on my return to 
Washington, which will be at the earliest day after our 
correspondence closes, I will be happy to be the means of 
having a more perfect set in all respects collected and 
transmitted to you, should you think it desirable, than it 
would now be in my power to furnish. 

Permit me to repeat the anxious wish I have to be able 
to embark, as soon as circumstances between us will allow. 
The necessity for me to sign the list of the certificates, as 
mentioned in the eighth article of the Public Convention, 
will, I presume, be superseded by the power of attorney 
sent with my letter of the 26th of October; the object of 
which was, and the effect of which will be, to give validity 
to the certificates as now signed by the proper officers of 
the towns, on your filling them up according to the stipula¬ 
tions of the Conventions ; after which an authentic list may 
perhaps be taken in some other way to meet your views. 
But if you think otherwise, I will of course be ready to 
sign the list, my only motive for wishing to be exonerated 
being, the fear of its delaying my return home. 

The certificates not wanted, you could perhaps have the 
goodness to cause to be made up in a secure parcel and 
sent to my address, Washington, by the first ship from your 
port, to Georgetown, Alexandria, Baltimore, Norfolk, or 
Richmond, which would probably place them at their final 
destination nearly or quite as soon as I should convey them 
there, and as safely; and might avoid my being detained 
here waiting for them. They would thus also avoid a 
«\ouble sea voyage. 

I have the honor to remain, &c. &c. &c. 

RICHARD RUSH. 


Messrs. Crommelin & Sons* 


129 


No. 88. 

Messieurs Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, Nov. 13, 1329. 

Sir : 

We have your esteemed favors of 6th and 10th instant, 
and duly note their contents. We are pleased to see that 
a perfect understanding exists on the subject of the filling 
up of the certificates—and we shall in course furnish the 
list in due order. 

We shall expect to have the pleasure by next mail to 
receive the promised papers, &c. 

We have not yet received the sanction of the King. 
One of us is at the Hague to press the matter as much as 
circumstances will allow. The highest authority is favor¬ 
ably disposed ; but the unusual form of the transaction has 
led to some difficulties being made from one of the Depart¬ 
ments as to the proportion of stamps, &c. all of which, 
however, we trust, will be ere long removed. 

We are gratified to see that you appear pleased with our 
having placed the whole of the stock by private subscrip¬ 
tion. The moment we shall have the permission of the King, 
the public subscription day for account of the private sub¬ 
scribers will be held, and we think it will go off well. 
Others seem to feel with us that the matter of the loan is 
so intimately connected with the general government, and 
that the act of Congress on the faith of, and under which, 
we move, provides such good security, that confidence is 
rapidly generating we believe with the capitalists that are 
gradually made acquainted with the particulars of the loan. 
Although without immediate interest in the result of this 
public subscription day, still it will be desirable for the 
Corporations that that public subscription fills rapidly *, 
enabling thereby also the private subscribers readily to 
meet their engagements—and as many of our leading 
stock dealers are now directly interested in the filling of 
the subscriptions rapidly, we believe we may rely on a 
satisfactory termination of that part of the business also. 

Hoping ere long to be enabled to advise you of the loan 
being finally closed for, we have the honor to remain 
meanwhile, with great respect, sir, 

Your most obedient humble servants, 
DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. 

Hon. Richard Rush, London . 

17 


130 


No. 39. 

Messrs. Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, November 17th, 1829. 

Richard Rush, Esq. London. 

Sir: We beg your reference to our respects of the 14 th, 
and have, since your esteemed, favor of the 12th, handing 
us various inclosures, for which please accept our best 
thanks. 

Whenever any further reports or statements are pub¬ 
lished about the Canal, we shall be happy to receive them. 

Having received the sanction of the King, we have gone 
on and made the matter public. We shall have the pub¬ 
lic subscription day on Friday next. 

The conventions are in course of being written. We 
shall urge them on as much as we possibly can, and see how 
we can manage as to the list. We are fully aware that you 
will wish to return home as early as possible, and shall cer¬ 
tainly not detain you longer than is necessarily required to 
have the papers in due order. 

The certificates not used will be transmitted in course as 
you suggest. 

We are not yet quite in order with the stamps, &c. but this 
has not hindered us in going on, on the terms of the con¬ 
vention. 

We are respectfully, 

Sir, your most obedient servant, 

(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. 


No. 40. 

Mr. Rush to Messrs. Crommelins. 

London, November 20, 1829,7 
32 Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 5 

Gentlemen: 

It has given me great pleasure to receive your favors of 
the 13th and 17th instant, the latter containing the infor¬ 
mation that the sanction of the King of the Netherlands 
has been obtained to our conventions. 

I pray you to accept my thanks for the assurances you 
are so good as to give, that all other matters will be arrang¬ 
ed as soon as their nature will permit, with a view to my 
speedy return. 

I remain, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

RICHARD RUSH 

Mess. Crommelin fy Sons. 



131 


No. 41. 

Messieurs Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, November 20, 1829. 

Sir : 

We refer to our respects of last mail and have none of 
your esteemed favors since. The mail from your side is 
not in. 

We have to-day had the public subscription. There has 
been some excitement, and about seventeen millions have 
been subscribed for, notwithstanding the very unfavorable 
reports which two houses of this place have propagated. 
We have some hopes of seeing Mr. Hughes here. We 
are much pleased that those insidious reports have had no 
more force. Of one of the houses, to whom the early appli¬ 
cation for information had been made here, we had fully 
expected it, but knew its weight; of the other, we had 
thought it stood too high to speak, as we hear they have 
done, considering how their intimate London connexions 
have viewed the matter in their official correspondence 
with you when at the head of the Treasury, and of which 
we cannot suppose the house here entirely ignorant. 

We shall, next week, hope to wait upon you with all the 
papers in complete order. 

We have the honor to remain, sir, 

Your most obedient servants, 
(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. 
Hon. Richard Rush, London . 


No. 42. 

Mr. Rush to Messrs. Crommelins. 

London, November 23, 1829, > 
32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. £ 

Gentelmen : 

1 have just received your favor of the 20th, and am hap¬ 
py to find from it that the public subscription to the stock 
held on that day, succeeded so well. 

Of the reports calculated to undervalue it, to which you 
allude, I will barely remark, that they ought little to have 
been expected from either of the quarters, whence they 
appear to have come. 

Should I receive all the papers from you this week, as 
you kindly give me reason to hope, my report of the en- 



132 

tire negotiation will be transmitted to the towns on the 
first of December, and a copy of it at the same time to the 
Secretary of the Treasury. I have already, by the packet 
that will sail from Liverpool to morrow, announced the 
general result to that officer as well as to the towns. 

I remain, most respectfully, 

RICHARD RUSH. 


Messrs. Crommelin and Sons. 


133 


No. 8. 

Richard Rush to Joseph Gales , Jun. Mayor of the 
City of Washington. 

London, December 8, 1829. 

Sir : 

I have now the honor to transmit the Conventions, 
duly executed, as promised in my report of the 25th 
of November, they did not reach me until the night 
of the fifth instant, (Saturday,) and yesterday was 
spent in going through the forms of executing them 
all on my part. 

The correspondence that has passed with the Mes¬ 
sieurs Crommelins since my report, is enclosed, num¬ 
bered from 43 to 51. It will not be necessary at this 
late day, that I should specially detail the contents of 
it; but the letters will be read with interest, as will 
all that belong to the negotiation, and are consequent¬ 
ly explanatory of it. 

It will be seen what is said upon the subject of the 
towns drawing for the first instalment. It cannot 
have escaped me, that it is physically impossible for 
them to draw, when by the terms of the Convention, 
the money must be ready, viz : in the course of the 
approaching January. For this, there was no reme¬ 
dy that I could provide, owing to the inevitable course 
which the negotiation took, and the time it has con¬ 
sumed. If I had been invested with authority to 
draw, I should have felt it a duty to remain until Jan- 


134 


uary, and after obtaining the money, to have placed it 
at safe interest in England, until the towns could get 
possession of it. On the arrival of the period, when 
the lenders are bound to pay the first instalment, it 
would not have lain with them to question my right 
to draw for it, as the representative of the towns, and 
charged with the care of their interests at all points ; 
nor do I imagine that they would have made a ques¬ 
tion about it. But as I had no special powers to draw, 
I have not felt at liberty to touch the money in any 
shape. 

It will be seen that my correspondents also state, 
that the credit of the loan has been further impugned 
at Amsterdam, and from the same quarters as before. 
1 beg to bespeak a respectful attention to the manner 
in which I have expressed myself, in the course of the 
correspondence upon this point; for in promising to 
use my efforts to cause to be extended to the Mes¬ 
sieurs Crommelins, as the purchasers of the stock, all 
the official protection which they may fairly ask un¬ 
der the act of Congress upon which the loan is found¬ 
ed, it will be understood that I speak, in effect, 
only on behalf of the towns and in their name ; since it 
is as their organ alone that I can hope to do any thing. 
Most free I am to make known my own ardent 
wishes, that this house may be upheld in their pur¬ 
chase in all ways that may be judged proper and 
practicable ; they having been the only capitalists not 
unwilling to take their stand upon the faith of the 
act of Congress, and that of the high functionaries of 
of our national government, who are charged with 
superintending its execution;—the only capitalist not 


133 


afraid to trust to the resources and honor of the na¬ 
tional metropolis, and two sister towns, as both are 
emphatically pledged, the one as the visible, the other 
as the high moral security, for this loan. I own, that 
it would be with me a source of deep regret if these 
gentlemen, so confiding in these communities, ap¬ 
pended as they are to the nation’s exclusive jurisdic¬ 
tion and care, and in regard to which I know that I do 
not err in viewing them as stamped, in foreign eyes, 
with at least some portion of the nation’s dignity— 
should have their purchase disparaged and run down 
by others. I fully hope that this will not be the case; 
and that all danger of it, should danger come, will 
be turned aside by whatever of help can be held out 
to them by the government, under the true spirit of 
the act of Congress, in question. Reasonable in their 
views, as well as honorable and confiding, the letters 
of the Mess. Crommelins ask nothing more. 

Whilst on this head, the remark is as natural as the 
fact is obvious, that the proper moment for obtaining 
the loan was taken advantage of; for although the 
stock has, thus far, maintained’itself in spite of oppo¬ 
sition, being now owned by the Messieurs Cromme¬ 
lins and their friends who are powerful on the ex¬ 
change at Amsterdam, it is plain that a public sub¬ 
scription for the stock, in that city, would not have 
succeeded in the face of such an opposition. One 
much less in degree, could not have failed to defeat it. 

It will be perceived that in the description which 
my correspondents saw fit to superadd to my name 
in the preamble to the Convention, there is an inac¬ 
curacy. This I overlooked until it was too late to 


136 


correct it, unless by sending back the instrument after 
I had first given it my signature, and I did not think 
the inaccuracy of importance enough to warrant this 
delay. 

I have the honor to remian 
With great respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Joseph Gales, Esq. 

Mayor of the City of Washington . 


137 


DOCUMENTS 

Enclosed by Mr. Rush, in his Letter, No. 8, to the 
Mayor of the City of Washington. 


No. 43. 

Messieurs Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 

Amsterdam, 24 November, 1829. 

Sir : 

We have to acknowledge the receipt of your esteemed 
favor of the 20th inst. which crossed our respects of the 
same day, by which we advised you <»f the good result of the 
public subscriptions, seventeen millions nearly having been 
subscribed for on the tirst day. We have since had the 
pleasure of seeing Mr. Hughes at the Hague, and of fully 
conversing with him. We have plainly stated to him, as 
we have done to you in our respects of last mail, the views 
which we were compelled to take of the excessive illibe- 
rality, to say no more, which dictated the reports propaga¬ 
ted about the loan—reports which we have full reason to 
believe have caused a large amount of intended, and even 
already ordered subscription, to be withdrawn—reports 
which have shown the decided wish to endanger the re¬ 
sult of the business, but which happily have ended only 
in a fruitless attempt to harm us and all concerned. We 
should least of all expected it from a house of such high 
standing and connexions as the one alluded to. It seems 
strange that this small loan should have created so much 
jealous and angry feeling. The future, we perfectly trust, 
will show how unfounded these reports have been. We 
have not spoken to any of the parties here on the subject, 
and do not intend to do so, until at least we have heard 
from you on the matter. You will be the best judge whe¬ 
ther and what ought to be done. The stock is selling in 
the market at about 100 per cent, but it may go a little 
lower we should think. 

We remain, respectfully, sir, 

Your most obedient servants, 
(^(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN, & SONS. 
Hon . Richard Rush , London . 

The stock has fully maintained itself to-day : there were 
many real purchasers at 100 per cent. 

18 



No. 44. 

Mr. Rush to Mess- s. Crommelius. 

London, November 27, 1829. > 
32, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. $ 

Gentlemen: 

I am favored by this day’s mail with your letter of the 
24th, and rejoice to find that the stock has maintained itself 
so well in your market, notwithstanding the highly impro¬ 
per reports to which you again allude. Time cannot fail 
to show its value, and the reports that would impeach it to 
be utterly groundless. 

Regarding these reports, I do not for myself at present 
see that I can do more than pronounce upon their extreme 
illiberality as well as injustice. But as they appear to have 
proceeded from the actual Banker of the United States at 
Amsterdam in one instance, and the intimate mercantile 
connexions of those who are their bankers in London in 
the other, it will be proper that the Government of the 
United States should be informed of them. This 1 will 
take care shall be the case. 

1 have the honor to remain, 

With great respect, &c. &c. &c. 

RICHARD RUSH, 

Messrs . Crommelin and Sons . 


No 45. 

Messrs. Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 


Amsterdam, November 27, 1829. 

Sir : 

We beg to confirm our respects of last mail and have 
none of your esteemed favors since. 

The Conventions and lists of Certificates are nearly 
ready ; the steam boat, however, having ceased to go 
twice a week, we must postpone to Monday sending them 
off. The steam boat is the only conveyance we can suita¬ 
bly send that large parcel by. 

The enclosed we beg, for regularity’s sake and for our 
justification, that you will have the goodness to sign and re¬ 
turn to us, and we rely on your good attention to that 
matter on your arrival in the United States. 

The unfavorable reports about the loan continue to be 
spread with unceasing violence. The Stock is at 100, to 
100| per cent ; but still the reports are not without effect 



139 


on the public mind which, as a matter of course, is sensi¬ 
tive in such matters, and it creates to ourselves, as it will 
to you, a most unpleasant feeling; so much so, in fact, to 
us, that we must, in the most earnest manner possible, beg 
you to exert your utmost influence, and the i< fiuence which 
the leading men in the District may have with the Gene¬ 
ral Government, to bring about that some mark or other 
of approbation and sanction be given to us from the Gene¬ 
ral Government. We do not of course ask that the Gene¬ 
ral Government should go one inch beyond the act of Con¬ 
gress, which we well know, also, it would be useless to ask ; 
nor is it at all necessary, for as long as the President of the 
United States, and the Secretary of the Treasury, do their 
bounden duty under the act of Congress—and who shall 
presume to entertain the most remote doubt thereof?— 
so long will the lenders of money under that act be per¬ 
fectly safe. As it is, nevertheless, equally true that the 
spreaders of the reports do by what they say, virtually 
bring into question the validity of the security which Con¬ 
gress did in good faith mean to provide for the money 
lenders, and that however much the National Government 
of the United States is above this foul attack, that we do, 
however, suffer under it in a business in which the wish to 
be of service to the District, to part of a Country to which 
we owe so much, has been among the motives that 
prompted us to act in it. We do, therefore, submit to you, 
whether some mark of approbation be not due to us from 
the General Government, under whose immediate patron¬ 
age and direct authority the Corporations move. We 
shall place full reliance upon your friendly dispositions 
towards us, to do in this matter all you can tending to vin¬ 
dicate publicly the character of the loan. 

This is one point, and one of the highest importance; 
but it will take time ere we can receive some communica¬ 
tions in that way from the Treasury, and what is to be done 
in the meanwhile is another most important point, because, 
although we anticipate nothing of the kind, still on the de¬ 
cisions therein may depend whether the payments of the 
loan will be effected to us without difficulty. The man¬ 
ner in which the leading house has spoken about it, is so 
extremely unhandsome ; and the attacks of the other person 
have been so virulent, considering particularly the some¬ 
what official station which he holds in relation to your 
General Government, that we wish there was a possibility 


140 


to do something towards it. We are desirous to hear from 
you in reply to our letters by the two preceding mails. 
We had been in hopes the matter would have died away 
after being talked over a short while, but calumny is still 
at work, and it is impossible to say how far it may have 
spread, and operate, and what mischievous consequences 
it may finally have. We do by all means deprecate any 
public controversy, nor as long as the Stock stands at 100 
per cent, is there any necessity for it; but could not per¬ 
haps something be done through the American Minister in 
London, making some communication to Mr. W., and per¬ 
haps to the United States’ Bankers in London—it could of 
course hardly be expected that he would make it a matter 
of official communication ; but the expression of his private 
opinion, and of the interest he takes in the matter, which 
you have mentioned to us, might have some effect at least 
in somewhat silencing those leaders of the opposition. It 
is perfectly plain that the other houses to which you ap¬ 
plied, declined taking the Stock because they apprehended 
it would not be current ; and the substance of Mr. W’s ad¬ 
vice when originally consulted, amounts to no more : and 
theLondon houses were correct in their opinion.for without 
the form into which we threw the Stock it would certainly 
not have been current; but that form made it current, as 
experience proved. And it is extremely unfair now to re¬ 
present the refusal, as the voice of the public informs us 
Mr. W. does, as the effect of a conscientious regard for 
the interest of the public. We leave this of course, also, 
to your good judgment, while we do in any case most 
strenuously recommend to your friendly care, either on 
arrival, or to save time, by letter, the request made in the 
earlier part of this letter, of having a line written to 
us on the subject from the Executive ; from that branch of 
the Government that has the immediate control over the 
Corporations for whom we have acted, and without whose 
authority and pledged protection we should most certainly 
not have brought forward the loan. 

We remain, very respectfully and truly, sir, 

Your most obedient servants, 

DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS- 
Hon. Richard Rush, London , 

P. S. The Stock was firm to-day at 100, to 100*. 


Ill 


Paper enclosed in No. 45, and signed by Richard Rush. 

(Copy.) 

The act of Congress of 24th May, 1828, enjoining that 
the lists of certificates to be. created by the Corporations 
of the City of Washington and the Towns of Georgetown 
and Alexandria, (which lists are to be deposited with the 
Secretary of the Treasury of the United States at Wash¬ 
ington) be signed and authenticated by the Mayors of the 
said Corporations, I do therefore engage on my arrival in 
the United States, to see that the said Mayors do duly 
sign and authenticate those said lists of certificates which 
Messrs. Daniel Crommelin and Sons will send on them¬ 
selves, with the Conventions, to the Secretary of the 
Treasury. 

RICHARD RUSH, 

London, Dec . 1 , 1829. 
To Messrs. Daniel Crommelin and Sons, Amsterdam , 

As Directors of the Loan made there to the 

three Corporations of the District of Columbia . 


No. 46. 


Mr. Rush to Messrs. Crommelins. 

London, December 1, 1829, > 
32 , Charlotte Street, Portland Place. \ 

Gentlemen : 

Your favor of the 27th instant has just got to hand, and 
1 hasten to reply to it by return of mail. The paper which 
it enclosed, I return with my signature. You will have 
received, I trust, before this time, my letters of the 23rd 
and 27th, which had not reached you when your last was 
written. 

The continued opposition to the loan from the same 
quarters, does but increase my surprise. The parties must 
act from some motive to me incomprehensible; for, what 
information can they, or either of them, have, or pretend 
to have, bearing any weight alongside of an act of the 
Congress of the United States, and the other official and 
authentic facts and documents upon which the whole mea¬ 
sure rests. The opposition, I repeat, is alike unjustifiable 
and illiberal. You may be assured of my best exertions, 



144 


No. 48. 

Note. 

The Case contains :— 

Nine sets in parchment, marked from 1 to 9; and one 
paper cover, containing 3 lists loose on stamped paper; and 
•3 affidavits loose on idem. 

No. 2,^ Are for the use of Mr. Rush ; No. 2, 3, 4, are de- 

3, | stined to be handed by Mr. R. to each of the 

4, ^three Corporations—say, No. 2, to the Corpora- 

5, | tion of Washington, having only the list of Wash- 

6, J ington certificates attached to it—No. 3, destined 

for Georgetown—-and No. 4, for destined for Alex¬ 
andria—No. 5, is destined to be handed by Mr. 
R. to the Secretary of the Treasury, being a full 
set made with particular care. 

No. 7,^ Are to be returned to D. C. & Sons; and after 

8, | signing and completing them, Mr. Rush will 

9, i please have the goodness to pack them up again 
10, Y\n the same tin box, and hand it to Messrs. J. 
loose I Gore & Co. who will have our instructions how 

fidavits, au j to return it to us. 

on stamped I 
paper, J 

N. B.—In a few of the conventions, there has been one 
phrase left out, which has had to be added between the 
lines afterwards. We have there added our initials for 
approbation, and Mr. Rush will please do so likewise. 


No. 49. 

Messieurs Crommelins to Mr. Rush. 


Amsterdam, 1st December, 1829. 

Sir : 

We beg your reference to our respects of the 30th No¬ 
vember, per steamboat, relating to the complete set of the 
documents for the loan, which is going over by that same 
steamboat-directed to Messieurs John Gore & Co. who 
have our directions immediately to send it on to you. 

We have since your esteemed favor of the 27th Novem¬ 
ber, and shall hope in course further to hear from you in re¬ 
ply to our addresses of the 24th and 27th. 

The stock is maintained at 100—100^ per cent. 

We regret that the making out of the documents has taken 
rather more time than we had been in hopes of—the lists 



145, 


have taken most time, and our lawyers considered it impor- 
tant, that those lists also should have your own signature. 
We shall be pleased to hear that you have found all in due 
order. We remain with great regard, Sir, 

Your obedient humble servants, 
(Signed) DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. 

Hon. Richard Rush, London. 

P. S. The main point of the Corporations being at lib¬ 
erty to dispose as they will see fit of the balances, which 
will remain due to them, in January and July next, on our 
books, is established by the Conventions; and as we fully 
trust that all the payments in January will be punctually 
made, we shall write to the Corporations, that we see no 
risk in their commencing to draw for the January instal¬ 
ment, without waiting our advice of the money being in 
cash. The January instalment being once paid, there will 
then be no difficulty neither, we trust, with the July instal¬ 
ment ; and the Corporations may then we should think en¬ 
joy the same advantage for that instalment, and commence 
drawing, before it is even paid in here. We shall now 
however provisionally, only write the needful, about the 
first instalment—as there will be ample time left, to 
write the needful also about the second instalment. We 
intend on the credits we open in London, to give part of 
the business to Messieurs Gowan and Marx. 


No. 50. 

Mr. Rush to Messieurs Crammelins. 

Londow, December 3, 1329, 7 
32 Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 5 

Gentlemen: 

I received this day your letters of the 30th of November, 
and first of this month, the former mentioning that you 
have sent to Messieurs John Gore and Company a package 
to my address, containing sundry documents, which those 
gentlemen will hand to me as soon as received. 

I will sign the lists of certificates as soon as possible, 
after their arrival. The affidavit which you describe as ad¬ 
ded to each of the sets of the Conventions, will, I flatter 
myself, contain nothing but what I can view as in the true 
spirit of our contract, in which case I will sign it; being 
sure that 1 shall in nothing better satisfy the towns 
19 




146 


then when, as their representative, 1 endeavour to throw 
the shield of perfect good faith over every part of the trans¬ 
action, and above all over every technical scruple. 

I have no authority to pledge the Branch Bank of the 
United States to the agency, which you wish it to assume ; 
but you may rely upon my efforts to bring that measure 
about; and 1 shall earnestly recommend it to the towns as 
the best; if for no other reason, because it will be most sat¬ 
isfactory to you. 

I perceive what is said in your letter of the first instant 
about the Corporations drawing for the first instalment, and 
of your intention to write to them upon that point; a point of 
the greatest importance to them, and in writing upon which, 
permit me to request that not a moment be lost that you 
can possibly avoid. I also observe that in the credits to 
be opened in London, you speak of it as your intention to 
give part of the business to Messieurs Gowan and Marx, 
for which I beg to return you my thanks. Their course 
in relation to the loan stands in contrast to that of some 
others, and in my opinion, especially recommends them to 
those who are now connected with it. 

I have the honor to remain, <kc. &c. 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Messieurs Crommelin & Sons. 


No. 51. 

Mr. Rush to Messieurs Crommelins. 

London, December 7, 1829, ) 
32 Chailotte Street, Portland Place. ) 

Gentlemen : 

Since my letter to you of the 3rd instant, in acknowledg¬ 
ment of yours of the 30th of last month and first of this, I 
have received through the hands of Messieurs John Gore 
and Company, the promised papers ; and I am happy to 
inform you that I found them all in good order. The tin 
box in which they were packed, was opened at the English 
Custom house; but none of the papers appeared to have 
been in any degree disturbed from the order in which you 
had arranged them. 1 need not therefore recapitulate them, 
as the whole were there, as set forth in the schedule or 
note that was in the box. 

I have this day executed them all. The certificate or 



147 


declaration, which you have described as an affidavit, added 
to each of the sets of the Conventions, 1 have signed with 
the greatest cheerfulness, as it expresses nothing more than 
the true and undoubted meaning of the parties. 

The papers to be returned to you, viz: Nos. seven, 
eight, nine, and ten, being so many sets of the Conventions 
with the documents appended to each set, and the three 
loose lists and the three affidavits, all on stamped paper, I 
have put into the box again, and it will be safely delivered 
to Messieurs J. Gore and Company to morrow, according 
to your instructions. Under their good care, I count con¬ 
fidently upon its reaching you safely, the more so, as in the 
course of our correspondence, no letter or paper of any 
kind has ever yet missed. Reposing upon this, I shall ven¬ 
ture to leave town during the present week, on my way to 
embark from Liverpool, hoping for your excuse under the 
anxiety 1 feel not to delay my voyage at a season, likely to 
advance in inclemency with every fresh week, and even 
every day. 

In finally closing our correspondence, I cannot avoid ex¬ 
pressing the sense I have of the good spirit, in which it has 
moved along, and my hope and belief that the Conven¬ 
tions to which we have now on each side put the last hand, 
will be found mutually satisfactory in all things, during the 
entire course of their operation. It was from the confi¬ 
dence of Dutch capitalists that the venerated founders of 
the American Republic once had a useful loan. Those who 
have now made one to the infant but advancing Metropolis 
of that Republic and its sister towns, will, as I fully anti¬ 
cipate, have equal reason to be content with the issue of 
the kindred operation of their day. 

In these sentiments I beg to subscribe myself, gentlemen, 
With the greatest respect and regard, 
Your very faithful and obedient servant, 

RICHARD RUSH. 

Messieurs Daniel Crommelin & Sons. 


148 


CONVENTIONS AND LIST OF CERTIFICATES 

Relating to the loan of f3,730,000, Netherlands currency , 
made in Amsterdam to the City of Washington and the 
Towns of Georgetown and Alexandria in the District of 
Columbia , under the high protection granted by an act of 
the Congress of the United States of America , of 24th 
May , 1828. 


€tje follotoing Contention, Between 

Richard Rush, Esquire, citizen of the United States of 
America, late Secretary of State for the Treasury of the 
said United States, and now bearer of special powers of 
attorney from the Corporation of Washington, the Corpo¬ 
ration of Georgetown, and the Corporation of Alexandria, 
in the District of Columbia, for certain therein hereafter 
mentioned purposes, and which said powers of attorney 
are and remain annexed unto the original of this Conven¬ 
tion, and so deposited at a public notary—now in London— 
On the one side — 

And Daniel Crommelin & Sons, Merchants, dwelling 
in the City of Amsterdam-— 

On the other side — 

3©itnejS$ictI>: 

Whereas, the Corporation of Washington, the Corpora¬ 
tion of Georgetown, and the Corporation of Alexandria, all 
within the District of Columbia in the United States of 
America, have made certain subscriptions for shares of the 
stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, viz: 
the Corporation of Washington a subscription of one mil¬ 
lion dollars—the Corporation of Georgetown of two hun¬ 
dred and fifty thousand dollars—and the Corporation of 
Alexandria of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and 
which subscriptions having been fully sanctioned and made 
valid by act of Congress of the twenty-fourth May, eigh¬ 
teen hundred twenty-eight; the said Corporations have, 
by the same act of Congress, been empowered,— 

1st. To borrow as it may be deemed by them respect¬ 
ively, either necessary or expedient, the neefal money to 



149 


pay their respective aforesaid subscriptions, and to issue 
certificates of the debt so to be contracted ; and 

2nd, To employ an agent or agents for the purpose of 
effecting on account of the Corporations such loan or loans 
of money, or of selling the certificates of the stock so cre¬ 
ated. 

All as detailed fully in the said act of Congress, which 
places the debts to be contracted in virtue of the said act 
under the special guardianship of His Excellency the Pre¬ 
sident at the time, of the United States, and a legal copy of 
which act of Congress is and remains annexed in the En¬ 
glish language to the original of this Convention, which is 
to be deposited at the notary public. 

And whereas, in pursuance of the said authorisation, the 
said Corporations have actually created certificates of stock 
to the amount of their respective aforesaid subscriptions, 
say— 

The Corporation of Washington, eleven hundred sixty-six 
certificates, of various sums, together amounting to one 
million dollars ; 

The Corporation of Georgetown, two hundred twenty-five 
certificates, of various sums, together amounting to two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; 

The Corporation of Alexandria, three hundred certificates, 
of various sums, together amounting to two hundred 
fifty thousand dollars; 

And have appointed the first underwritten to be their agent 
in Europe, there to sell or realize this stock, handing over 
to him to that effect the said certificates, and giving him 
their full and complete powers of attorney to act in this 
matter, in their behalf as aforesaid. 

And whereas, further, the last underwritten have consent¬ 
ed under certain conditions to open a subscription for a loan 
at their counting house in Amsterdam, to the effect of rais¬ 
ing the needful sums of money for the abovementioned 
purposes ; Now therefore, the two parties underwritten 
have agreed and covenanted, and do agree and covenant by 
these presents, as follows:— 

Article First. 

The first underwritten, acting in his aforesaid capacity 
as Agent for the three Corporations, authorizes and empow¬ 
ers the last underwritten to open at their counting house, 


I 


150 

in behalf of the said Corporations a subscription to a loan 
three million seven hundred fifty thousand guilders, Nether- 
land currency, being the equivalent of one million five hun¬ 
dred thousand dollars, valuing each dollar at two hundred 
and fifty cents, Netherland currency, and which debt of 
three million seven hundred fifty thousand guilders, Neth¬ 
erland currency, is to be on account of, and to be borne by 
the Corporation of Washington for two million five hundred 
thousand guilders, Netherland currency ; by the Corpora¬ 
tion of Georgetown for six hundred twenty-five thousand 
guilders, Netherland currency ; and by the Corporation of 
Alexandria for six hundred twenty-five thousand guilders, 
Netherland currency : provided however, that the last un¬ 
derwritten will previously have obtained the requisite per¬ 
mission from his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, fail¬ 
ing which, the present Convention is annulled to all intents 
and purposes. 

Article Second. 

The last underwritten will in course issue three thousand 
seven hundred fifty bonds of thousand guilders, Netherland 
currency, each numbered, from one to three thousand seven 
hundred fifty, signed by them, and countersigned by a no¬ 
tary—each of which bonds will be at the charge of the 
Corporation of Washington for two thirds; at the charge 
of the Corporation of Georgetown for one sixth ; and at 
the charge of the Corporation of Alexandria for one-sixth. 

Article Third. 

The joint takers of those three thousand seven hundred 
and fifty bonds will in consideration of the money to be 
paid in by them, for the said bonds, become jointly the 
true and sole proprietors of the aforesaid certificates to 
the aggregate amount of one million five hundred thousand 
dollars; and they will morever be direct and true creditors 
of the Corporations in their aforesaid respective propor¬ 
tions, for whatever amount may in addition to the amount 
to be received for them, at the Treasury of the United 
States, and at any time be wanted, to meet and discharge 
fully, and at the stated times the sums of money, which the 
Corporations do bind themselves by their aforesaid agent, 
to pay in Amsterdam unto the holders of the said three 
thousand seven hundred and fifty bonds, both for interest 


151 


and principal as described and contracted hereafter in this 
Convention. 

Article Fourth. 

The said three thousand seven hundred and fifty bonds 
shall bear a fixed interest of five per cent, per annum, upon 
their nominal capital of thousand guilders, Netherland cur¬ 
rency each ; the said interest will be payable in Amsterdam* 
at the counting house of the last underwritten, or of their 
successors, from six months to six months, say on the first 
January and the first July of each year ; and when the said 
bonds therefore will be issued, there will be added to them 
a set of half-yearly dividend warrants, each of twenty-five 
guilders, Netherland currency, payable in succession at the 
counting house of the last underwritten or of their cashiers, 
and the first of which dividend warrants will be payable 
first January, eighteen hundred thirty-one. 

Article Fifth. 

The lenders will be made bound to pay in the amount of 
their subscription, at the counting house of the last under¬ 
written in two instalments, one-half in the course of Janu¬ 
ary, eighteen hundred thirty, and the balance in the month 
of July, eighteen hundred thirty ; they enjoying interest 
from the first day of the months, in which the payments are 
to be made against provisional receipts, which receipts will 
be exchanged for the bonds, as soon as the bonds can be 
got ready; at the payment of the last instalment, the in¬ 
terest then due till the first of July, on the first payment, 
will be paid up and settled. 

Article Sixth. 

The borrowers shall not have power, nor be bound to 
commence reimbursing the money borrowed until the year 
eighteen hundred forty-one—but commencing with that 
year one twenty-fifth part of the amount now borrowed 
will annually have to be paid off and reimbursed. 

To this effect the last underwritten will in the month of 
May, eighteen hundred forty-one, and subsequently every 
year in that month determine by lot, in the presence of a 
public notary, which of the three thousand seven hundred 
and fifty bonds will be paid off; the numbers of the bonds 
drawn out will be advertised in the public papers; and after 


152 


the day upon which those bonds will be made reimbursable, 
no further interest will be due or payable upon them. 

Article Seventh. 

The bonds so drawn out and made reimbursable will be 
payable to the holders thereof, on the first July ensuing, and 
following work days, at the counting house of the last un¬ 
derwritten, or of their cashiers, with thousand guilders, 
Netherland currency for each bond, and against delivery of 
the bonds with the unpaid dividend warrants—the said 
bonds and dividend warrants will then be cancelled in pre¬ 
sence of the notary. 

Article Eighth. 

In order to ensure the due fulfilment of the obligations 
contracted in this present document, the blanks left in the 
original certificates of the Corporations will as soon as the 
loan is actually closed, be filled up by the first underwrit¬ 
ten, or by a person specially appointed by him thereunto, 
and made due to 

“ The Trustees for the Proprietors of this Stock”— 
bearing interest at the rate of five and a half per cent, per 
annum, from the first July,eighteen hundred and thirty, and 
reimbursable in succession, one twenty-fifth part of the 
whole on the first January, eighteen hundred forty one—a 
second one-twenty fifth part on the first January, eighteen 
hundred forty-two—and so on, the stock of each Corpora¬ 
tion pro parte—a list of the certificates so made out will be 
signed by both contracting parties, and then annexed to 
each of the sets of this Convention. 

Article Ninth. 

The certificates so made out will be deposited in an iron 
chest to be left at the domicilium of a notary, and to be 
furnished with four different padlocks ; a key of one of 
which is to remain in the possession of each trustee—the 
key of the chest itself remains with the notary. 

Article Tenth. 

Whereas to obviate the necessity in case of changes in 
the persons of the trustees, of having in such cases the 
certificates cross the Ocean, and consequently run the risk 
of being lost; there have been no names of the trustees at 


153 


the time inserted into the certificates, it is now further stat¬ 
ed that the first trustees will be 

Messrs. M. C. VAN HALL, 

E. T. KOCH, 

G. D. CROMMELIN, 

C. D. CROMMELIN, 

Who are to have full power to receive by attorney at the 
Treasury of the United States, the interest and reimburse¬ 
ment that will accrue upon the above said certificates, and 
generally to do all that is requisite in the premises as good 
trustees for the proprietors of this stock : and 

That in case of demise, or wish to retire, of one or more 
of the before named trustees, the remaining trustee or trus¬ 
tees, will assume another trustee or trustees, so that the 
number of four remain complete—and do so by notarial 
act—a legal copy of which will be transmitted through 
the agent in the United States to each of the Corporations, 
and to the Treasury of the United States—and the so as¬ 
sumed Trustees, will jointly with those by whom they have 
been assumed have full power to receive by attorney, 
dividends and reimbursements upon the certificates, and 
generally to do the needful in the premises, and this power 
of assumption will not cease or terminate, except with the 
termination of the loan. 

Article Eleventh. 

The aforesaid trustees will pass, and their successors in 
course of time continue to pass, the needful powers of at¬ 
torney upon the Branch Bank of the United States at Wash¬ 
ington, or upon such other corporate body or person as 
may in course of time, and with the concurrence and ap¬ 
probation of the said last underwritten,or theirsuccessors,be 
appointed as agent to receive the dividends, and reimburse¬ 
ments that will accrue upon the said certificates, and they 
will instruct such agent to remit the said dividends and re¬ 
imbursements to, and to follow therewith the instructions of 
the last underwritten, or of their successors. 

The first offer of this Agency will be made, consequent¬ 
ly, by the Corporations to the aforesaid Branch Bank of 
the United States at Washington, with earnest endeavors 
to come to a satisfactory conclusion with that said establish¬ 
ment. 


20 


15,4 


All charges or commissions of the said Branch Bank, or 
of any other intermediate agent, will be by them brought 
in account and charged to the Corporations pro parte, and 
in no case charged to, or claimed from the Trustees, the 
last underwritten, or the holders of the three thousand 
seven hundred and fifty bonds. 

Article Twelfth. 

Whereas, the payment of interest and reimbursement 
upon the bonds to be issued in Amsterdam, must also be 
made in Amsterdam to the holders of the said bonds in Neth- 
erland currency ; and whereas neither the said holders, nor 
the last underwritten are to be made passible of any loss re¬ 
sulting from the rates of exchange, or from depreciation of 
paper money in the United States, or of any loss upon, or 
of bills, or remittances howsoever made, by failures, ship¬ 
wrecks, or any such and like accidents, or of any commis¬ 
sions or guarantee to be earned by the Branch Bank, or by 
any other intermediate agent, nor of any risk whatsoever; 
but that all and every risk of whatever kind or nature it 
may be, is and remains now and in future and once for all 
on the account of the borrowers, who are not to be exon¬ 
erated from the obligations contracted with the holders of 
the bonds, until the requisite money be lodged in cash, in the 
hands of the last underwritten. And, whereas, on the other 
hand the said borrowers must enjoy the benefit of all sums 
of money, that may at any time accrue upon and out of the 
certificates, more than wanted to place in Amsterdam, the 
amount of guilders requisite for payment there of interest 
and reimbursement, and likewise must enjoy all benefit that 
may now and in future result from any favorable turn of 
the exchanges—Now therefore it is further agreed and 
covenanted— 

That the agent of the trustees will, after having received 
the sums of money due upon the certificates, employ the 
whole, or if part be thought sufficient, then part only, to 
make to the last underwritten such remittances in bills or 
otherwise, as will in good time net a sufficient sum in Am¬ 
sterdam, to meet the payment of interest and reimburse¬ 
ment next due : 

That if part only has been used for that purpose, and a 
surplus be left, as it will probably, such surplus shall then 
remain provisionally under the agent: 


155 


That when a payment of interest, and later also for re¬ 
imbursement shall have been made in Amsterdam, the last 
underwritten will cause to be made out the account current 
of the Corporations : 

That if the remittances made with part or the whole of 
the amount received upon the certificates should not have 
netted an amount in Netherland currency, large enough to 
pay interest and reimbursement due at the time; but have 
left a deficiency, such deficiency will first be covered by 
remittances to be made by the agent with the surplus, if 
any there was still laying in his hands ; and the Corpora¬ 
tions will further, each pro parte, have to make immediate¬ 
ly to the agent such further payment, as may be wanted 
to enable the said agent, fully to remit also free of expenses 
and risk to the last underwritten, the amount of such de¬ 
ficiency. 

On the other hand, if it shall appear from the said ac¬ 
count current, that the remittances made by the agent have 
been sufficient to make the needful net provision in Hol¬ 
land, for interest and reimbursement due at the time, the 
said surplus will be forthwith paid out and returned to the 
Corporations, each proportionally, thus settling with the 
Corporations, each half year. 

Article Thirteenth. 

Whereas, further, the original certificates might happen 
to be lost at sea, when sent over for reimbursement; and 
that delays might ensue therefrom—it is therefore agreed 
and covenanted to deviate in this respect, from the custom¬ 
ary forms observed at the Treasury ; and to stipulate that 
the Corporations do consent that the reimbursement will at 
the time be claimed from, and be made by the Treasury 
of the United States, upon the production of the Powers of 
Attorney of the trustees at the time. 

As soon as the remittances will have been received by 
the last underwritten, and the bonds drawn out for the 
year will have become payable as aforesaid, the certificates 
of which the reimbursement has been received, will in the 
presence and with the concurrence of the notary, be tak¬ 
en out of the iron chest by the trustees, signed by the said 
trustees in dorso for acquittal, and handed over to the 
American Charge d’Affaires, or to any other person or per¬ 
sons, whom the Corporations may choose to appoint, against 


156 


a receipt which will be deposited again in the iron chest, 
until the entire termination of this loan. 

Article Fourteenth. 

The first underwritten having therefore in his aforesaid 
quality authorized the last underwritten, in their capacity 
of directors of this loan, to receive the money from the 
lenders, to sign with the signature of their firm, the pro¬ 
visional receipts and the bonds, in which will be inserted 
and printed a translation made by a sworn translator of 
this present Convention ; and which Convention is to be 
deposited at the notary, who will countersign the bonds ; 
the said first underwritten now further proceeds in his afore¬ 
said capacity, as fully empowered agent of the Corporations 
of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, firmly to 
bind his constituents, the said Corporations of Washington, 
Georgetown, and Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, 
viz : each of them for their aforesaid share or proportion, 
as true debtors on the terms of this Convention, unto the 
holders jointly and severally of the said three thousand 
seven hundred and fifty bonds to the amount expressed, in 
Netherland currency, for principal and interest in the said 
bonds, submitting his said constituents, not only to that 
effect, to the jurisdiction of all judges or courts of justice, 
but also granting and acknowledging unto the said holders, 
jointly or severally, the rights of privilege and security 
granted by the act of Congress of the twenty-fourth May, 
eighteen hundred twenty eight, to the lenders of money 
under that act. Surrogating if, and as far as necessary, 
the holders of the said bonds, jointly or severally into the 
claims or rights, which the Corporations may each of them 
have or acquire upon the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal 
Company—and finally engaging in behalf of his aforesaid 
constituents, that no circumstance, no not that even (which 
God forbid) of a war between the United States of America 
and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, shall ever be a mo¬ 
tive for not duly and honorably proceeding in the correct 
fulfilment of all the obligations contracted bona fide in this 
Convention. 

Article Fifteenth. 

Finally the first underwritten does elect the domicilium 
citandi et exequendi of his aforesaid constituents in Arm 


157 


sterdam, at the office of the youngest notary, at the time, 
consenting that all sommations, &c. be there done and held 
to be done validly in law and without. 

And have the aforesaid contracting parties, in witness of 
the above, set hereunto their hands and seals—the first 
underwritten in London, on the thirtieth day of October, 
eighteen hundred and twenty nine, and the second under¬ 
written in Amsterdam on the second day of November, 
eighteen hundred and twenty-nine, and has the present 
deed been made in ten copies all of one tenor and date. 

RICHARD RUSH. [l. s.] 

Signed, sealed, and delivered by Richard Rush, ) 

In the presence of— $ 

W. Holloway, 

Robt. Lithgow. 

DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. [l. s.J 

Signed, sealed, and delivered by Daniel Crom-) 
melin & Sons, —In the presence of— \ 

R. Daniel Wolterbeck, 

Richard Haighton. 


HMjeteag, 

Richard Rush, Esq. Citizen of the United States of 
America, late Secretary of State for the Treasury of the 
said United States, and now bearer of Special Powers of 
Attorney from the Corporation of Washington, the Corpo¬ 
ration of Georgetown, and the Corporation of Alexandria, 
all in the District of Columbia, for certain therein men¬ 
tioned purposes, now in London— 

On the one side — 

And Daniel Crommelin & Sons, Merchants, dwelling 
in the City of Amsterdam— 

On the other side — 

Have passed a Convention between them relating to a 
certain Loan for three million seven hundred and fifty 
thousand guilders—which the last underwritten will make 
at their counting house in behalf of the constituents of 
the first underwritten —And whereas , there have been set¬ 
tled in that Convention, which is considered as being here 
verbally inserted, all those conditions of said Loan which 
do concern the public^ leaving to be settled between the 
first and last underwritten, all such further conditions as 



158 


do more immediately concern the last underwritten in their 
capacity of Bankers of this said Loan. 

Now therefore, do the aforesaid contracting parties, 
with full reference to the aforesaid Public Convention, 
agree and covenant, as follows:— 

Article First. 

The last underwritten will open at their counting-house 
a private subscription for the stock of this loan, as soon as 
the obtaining the permission of the King will allow it, or 
sooner conditionally, if they shall deem it advisable, with 
the fluctuating state of the money market. 

Article Second. 

If the subscription should against expectation not attain 
the full amount of three million seven hundred and fifty thou¬ 
sand guilders, Netherland currency, but should reach more 
than three-fourths, the Loan will nevertheless be considered 
as made, and the three thousand seven hundred and fifty 
bonds created in full. The bonds not subscribed for, will 
remain the property of the Corporations, each in propor¬ 
tion to the amount they bear in the Loan, and those bonds 
will remain with the last underwritten to be by them suc¬ 
cessively disposed of; but the last underwritten can in no 
case be compelled to sell them under the price ©f the pub¬ 
lic subscription day hereafter mentioned in article four. 

Article Third. 

The interest that may fall due upon the bonds so created, 
but not immediately disposed of, will as it falls due be 
carried by the last underwritten to the credit of the Cor¬ 
porations proportionally, and settled each half year in the 
half yearly account current, which the last underwritten 
are to furnish. 

Article Fourth. 

The subscription to the nominal capital stock of three 
million seven hundred and fifty thousand guilders, Nether- 
land currency, will be offered by the last underwritten to 
the subscribers at ninety six per cent, and if three fourths 
or more gets subscribed for, the proceeds of the whole 
three million seven hundred and fifty thousand guilders. 


159 


Netherland currency, will on receipt, appear to the credit 
of the Corporations, each proportionally, on the books of 
the last underwritten, at the said price of ninety six per 
cent., under deduction however out of the last instalment 
of four and a half per cent, on the whole of the three 
million seven hundred and fifty thousand guilders, Nether- 
land currency, nominal capital, which said charge of four 
and a half per cent, the last underwritten will bring in ac¬ 
count to the Corporations for all expenses of petitioning, 
brokerage, registration dues, stamps, paper, printing, law¬ 
yers’ fees, and all expenses whatsoever required for the 
creation of the Loan, including the commission of the last 
underwritten. 

The subscription mentioned in the beginning of this Ar¬ 
ticle, it is well understood, is a private subscription which 
the last underwritten will offer to such brokers and stock- 
dealers as they will see fit; and as it is probable that they 
will afterwards hold a public subscription day at a some¬ 
what higher rate for accouut of the private subscribers, it 
is equally well understood, that whether such public sub¬ 
scription at a higher rate does actually succeed or not, 
such does in no manner concern or affect the Corporations 
who, after the last underwritten, will have declared that 
the private subscription has succeeded in manner afore¬ 
said, will have thereby secured for the stock the price of 
ninety-six per cent, gross, or ninety-one and a half per 
cent net, always saving the final sanction of theKing. 

Article Fifth. 

The Corporations will proportionally be debited in ac¬ 
count current for the amount of the bonds not imme¬ 
diately subscribed for, at the same periods as they will be 
credited in account current for the proceeds of the whole 
Loan 

When these bonds so held for the Corporations will be 
disposed of, their proceeds will be carried by the last un¬ 
derwritten to the credit in account current of the Corpo¬ 
rations proportionally. 

Article Sixth. 

The last underwritten will credit the Corporations, pro¬ 
portionally for two per cent., returned commission on the 
nominal amount of those bonds that are not immediately 


160 


subscribed for, and they will not bring in that same charge 
of commission again until the bonds are actually disposed of. 

There will be no further charge of brokerages, or any 
other further charge whatsoever made by the last under¬ 
written for the sale and disposal of these bonds so held. 

If these bonds can be sold higher than the subscription 
price, that benefit will of course be enjoyed by the Cor¬ 
porations. 

Article Seventh. 

If against expectation, the King having given his per¬ 
mission for the Loan, there should be made by the revenue 
claims for more registration, or higher stamps than such as 
stated in the law of thirty-first May, eighteen hundred and 
twenty four—in that case the deduction for expenses stated 
in Article four will not be obligatory on the last underwrit¬ 
ten—they having assumed the duty prescribed in said law 
in their calculations of expenses ; and it will then be at the 
option of the first underwritten to allow, or not, the addi¬ 
tional charge, to which the last underwritten will state 
themselves to be entitled ; and if the first underwritten 
should not feel inclined to allow this extra charge, the 
whole of this, and of the Public Convention will thereby 
ipso facto be void and null. 

Article Eighth. 

The last underwritten are empowered to retain out of 
the last instalment the amount of three and three fourth per 
cent, on the three million seven hundred and fifty thousand 
guilders, Netherland currency, nominal amount of the Loan 
to meet the five per cent, interest for six months on one 
million eight hundred seventy five thousand guilders, Neth- 
erland currency, that will be due the first July, eighteen 
hundred and thirty; and five per cent, for six months on 
three million seven hundred and fifty thousand guilders, 
Netherland currency, that will be due the first January, 
eighteen hundred thirty-one—leaving the first dividend 
warrant for which must be provided by remittance, that of 
the first July, eighteen hundred thirty one, and which will 
then be provided for by the dividends falling due in Ameri¬ 
ca, the first October, eighteen hundred and thirty, and the 
first January, eighteen hundred and thirty one; saving 
always the obligation for the Corporations to provide in 


161 


course for the deficiency, if those dividends should prove 
insufficient. 

As there will on this footing be ample time left for the 
provision to be made in Europe, the agent in the United 
States will be instructed by the last underwritten to man¬ 
age the remittances to the most of the interest of the Cor¬ 
porations—having good care, however, to remit early 
enough that the remittances can be timely encashed pre¬ 
vious to the days appointed for the payment of interest or 
capital. Allowing thus the remittances out of the October 
and April dividends to be managed most leisurely, while 
those so to be made out of the January and July dividends 
must be somewhat more urged. 

Article Ninth. 

In case of losses of, or on remittances, it is well under¬ 
stood, that the last underwritten will apply for replacing 
those remittances to the Branch Bank, or to such other in¬ 
termediate agent as may be acting at the time, and that 
any charge for guarantee which may have to be paid on 
that account is to be borne by the Corporations all agree¬ 
ably to Article twelve, of the Public Convention—this how¬ 
ever in no case invalidating the primitive obligations of the 
Corporations. 

In case of protested bills, or such like losses, there be¬ 
ing no current opportunity here of drawing upon the Uni¬ 
ted States, the last underwritten will consequently, in most 
cases, have to wait for other remittances to come forward ; 
and if, in such cases, the last underwritten should, notwith¬ 
standing their being then perhaps not fully in cash for the 
payment next due, still determine to make such payment to 
preserve the honor of the Corporations, they will then 
charge in account current five per cent, interest per annum 
upon their cash advance, and be moreover entitled to 
charge an extra commission of one per cent, upon that said 
amount of their said uncovered cash advance. 

Article Tenth. 

The balances which will remain to the credit of the Cor¬ 
porations in January, eighteen hundred thirty and July, 
eighteen hundred thirty, may be drawn for, or disposed of 
by the Corporations as they will see fit. 

As soon as the sanction of the King will be obtained, 
and the Loan finally closed for, the last underwritten will 

21 


162 


give the needful advice to the Corporations, so they may 
immediately draw, which, if done directly, on the last un¬ 
derwritten will then entail no further expense whatever in 
Europe upon the Corporations. 

Article Eleventh. 

To facilitate however the drawing of the Corporations, 
the last underwritten will open credits on London and Pa¬ 
ris. to be made use of by the Corporations as their con¬ 
venience or interest may dictate—such credits to be at the 
risk and expense of the Corporations, unless the Corpora¬ 
tions should wish that the last underwritten should run the 
risk and bear the expense ; in which case, and on the Cor¬ 
porations stating their wish to that effect to the last under¬ 
written, the said last underwritten are willing to take all 
risks of the London and Paris houses, and of all bills to 
be remitted, and all expenses of bills, brokerages, and 
stamps, and commissions and postages, attending upon that 
circuitous drawing upon themselves, the said last under¬ 
written, against a charge of one and a half per cent, on the 
final guilder amount of the proportion so circuitously drawn 
for, leaving in such cases only the variations of the exchange 
pro or contra, on account of the Corporations. 

Article Twelfth. 

The last underwritten will be entitled to charge in ac¬ 
count current to the Corporations one per cent, commission 
upon the amount, Netherland currency, of the interest, 
and one percent, commission upon the amount, Netherland 
currency, of the reimbursement, at the time ; charging the 
same each time in the half yearly account current. 

The last underwritten will likewise be entitled to charge 
in those half yearly accounts current all actually paid ex¬ 
penses of postages, brokerages and stamps, on the remit¬ 
tances to be received from the Branch Bank, or other agent 
at the time, likewise cost of advertising and other similar 
small expenses, necessary lor the due performance of the 
sundry obligations contracted by the Corporations during 
the running of this Loan, until it be finally liquidated and 
wound up. 

In all which aforegoing, the first underwritten has, ift 
virtue of his full powers of attorney from his constituents, 
the Corporations of Washington, Georgetown, and Alex¬ 
andria, firmly and truly bound by these presents his said 


163 


constituents, unto the last underwritten ; and have the last 
underwritten equally firmly bound themselves by these 
presents unto the first underwritten in his said capacity, for 
the due and correct performance of their part of this Con¬ 
vention ; in witness whereof, they have respectively set 
hereunto their hands and seals, viz : the first underwritten 
in London, on the thirtieth day of October, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and twenty nine, and the last underwritten in Amster¬ 
dam, on the second day of November, eighteen hundred 
and twenty nine, and has the present deed been made in 
ten copies, all of one tenor and date. 

RICHARD RUSH. [l. s.] 

Signed, sealed, and delivered by Richard Rush,? 

In the presence of— 

Wm. Holloway, 

Robt. Lithcow. 

DANIEL CROMMELTN & SONS. [l. s.] 

Signed, scaled, and delivered by Daniel Crom- > 
melin & Sons,—I n the presence of— \ 

R. Daniel Wolterbeck, 

Richd. Haighton. 


Whereas, two Conventions have been passed between 
the underwritten for the loan of f 3,750,000 ; raised in Am¬ 
sterdam by the last underwritten as agent for the Corpora¬ 
tions of Washington,Georgetown, and Alexandria—the pur¬ 
pose of the present is solemnly to declare and certify to all 
whom it may concern, that no clause or arrangement, made 
in, or by, any one, or both, of the said conventions, whatev¬ 
er technical difficulty or objection, or whatever inference 
generally it might now, or in future, be possible to draw 
from such clause or arrangement—has been, or is intended 
to come within the exemption mentioned in section seven 
of the act of Congress of the twenty-fourth May, eighteen 
hundred and twenty eight, entitled “An act to enlarge the 
powers of the several Corporations of the District of Col- 
lumbia, and for other purposes but, that the said loan is 
in good faith meant and intended to all intents and pur¬ 
poses to be, and is considered as being, in conformity in 
all, and in every respect with the provisions of the said 
act of Congress, and as being based upon it—the lenders 
of the said loan for f 3,750,000, having lent the said sum 



164 


of money under, and upon the strength of, the pledged 
protection of thp said act of the Congress of the United 
States; and has this affidavit been attached to every one 
of the sets of the aforesaid conventions, fully and at all 
times to substantiate the true meaning of both contracting 
parties, who, in testimony thereof, have hereunto set their 
hands and seals. 

DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS. [l. s.] 

Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the presence of— 

R. Daniel Wolterbeck, 

Richd. Haiohton. 

RICHARD RUSH. [l. s.] 

Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the presence of 

Wm. Holloway, 

Robt. Lithgow. 



165 


List of Certificates of Funded Debt 

Created by the Corporations of ilie City of Washington and the Towns of 
Georgetown and Alexandria, all in the District of Columbia, in the United 
States of America, in pursuance of and under an act of Congress, of the 
24th May, 1828, thereunto authorizing the said Corporations, and which 
certificates having been created and signed in blank by the Officers of the 
said Corporations, have been filled up and completed in Europe, according 
to the terms of the Conventions hereunto annexed passed between Richard 
Rush, Esq. in his capacity of specially empowered Agent of the said Cor¬ 
porations, and Daniel Crommelin & Sons, merchants of Amsterdam, under 
date of the 30th October, 1829, in London, and of the 2nd November, 1829, 
in Amsterdam, the said Conventions relating to the Loan for f3,750,000, 
Netherland Currency, made by Daniel Crommelin & Sons, on account of 
and for the said Corporations upon their said certificates;—and all which 
said certificates are and remain deposited in Amsterdam, with a public no¬ 
tary and under safe keeping of the acting Trustees, at the time for the said 
loan, until the successive reimbursement, in Amsteidam, of the guilder 
bonds issued for the Corporations by Daniel Crommelin & Sons. The pre¬ 
sent list being made for the purpose of being deposited with the Honorable 
the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, the interest and reim¬ 
bursement that will accrue upon the said certificates being payable at the 
said Treasury of the United States, under and agreeably to the aforemen¬ 
tioned act of Congress, of the 24th May, 1828. 


List of the Certificates created by the Corporation of the City of Washington. 

The certificates of the City of Washington are all made due to the Trus¬ 
tees for the Proprietors of this stock, being Messieurs M. C. Van Hall, E. T 
Koch, G. D. Crommelin and C. D Crommelin, who in case of demise or wish 
to retire are to be replaced by succesive assumption before notary, where¬ 
of due notice will then be given to the Treasury, all as fully detailed in the 
hereunto annexed Conventions. They are all made to bear interest from the 
first day of July, eighteen hundred and thirty. They are all made to bear 
interest at the rate of five and one-half per centum per annum, payable quar¬ 
terly, at the Treasury of the United States of America, under the act of Con¬ 
gress, ef the 24th May, 1828. The further particulars are as stated here under; 


Number oe 

the Certificates, 

ALL DATED 

10 April, 1829* 

Number of Certificates 
of the same amount. 

Reimbursable when. 

Amount of each Certifi¬ 
cate. 

Aggregate amount of the 
corresponding number 
of Cextifieates. 

Sums total for addition. 

Dates upon which the 
sums total are reim¬ 
bursable in the Uni¬ 
ted States. 

1 to 20. 

Say, 

20 

1 Jan. 1841 

2000 

40000 

$40000 1 Jan. 1841 

from one to twenty. 







21 to 40. 







Say, 

20 

1 Jan. 1842 

2000 

40000 

40000 

1 Jan. 1842 

from twenty-one to forty. 







41 to 60. 







Say* 

20 

1 Jan. 1843 

2000 

40000 

40000 

1 Jan. 1843 

from forty-one to sixty. 






-1 


Brought forward, 


$120000 































166 


Continuation of the List of Washington Certificates. 


Numeer of 
the Certificates, 
all dated 
10 April, 1829. 


0) 

«S 

55 fl 

tj a 
C g 
o S 

cl 

. 

o 

p 

S 5 
.a f 
Si 

3^ 

!z 


J3 

? 

1) 

3 

a 

; C 

3 


0/ 

s 

(C 

•fi 

OJ 

O 

3S 


S 

3 

o 

s 


o'*; 

J3 ° 

** u 

4> 

®s 

S* 

© 60 
s= S . 
3'*e 2 

0) 5 « 
' 

i'- W) 

60 0 « 
60 vO 
< 


61 to 80. 

. . Sa y» 

from sixty-one to eighty. 


20 


Carried over, 

1 Jan. 1844 2000 40000 


81 to 100. 

Say, 

from eighty-one to one 
hundred 

20 

1 Jan. 1845 

2000 

40000 

101 to 120. 

Say, from one hundred and 
one to one hundred and 
twenty. 

20 

1 Jan. 1846 

2000 

40000 

121 to 140. 

Say, from one hundred and 
twenty-one to one hundred 
and forty. 

20 

1 Jan. 1847 

2000 

40000 

141 to 160. 

Say, from one hundiedand 
forty-one to one hundred 
and sixty. 

20 

1 Jan. 1848 

2000 

40000 

161 to 167. 

Say, from one hundred and 
sixty-one to one hundred 
and sixty-seven. 

7 

1 Jan. 1849 

2000 

14000 

168 to 193. 

Say, from one hundred and 
sixty-eight to one hundred 
and ninety-three 

26 

1 Jan.1849 

1000 

26000 

194 to 233. 

Say, from one hundred and 
ninety-four to two hundred 
and thirty-three. 

40 

1 Jan. 1250 

1000 

40000 

234 to 273. 

Say, from two hundred and 
thirty-four to two hun¬ 
dred and seventy-three. 

40 

1 Jan.1851 

1000 

40000 

274 to 3 1 3. 

Say, from two hundred and 
seventy-four to three hun¬ 
dred and thirteen. 

40 

1 Jan. 1852 

1000 

40000 


brought forward, 


ns 

C*3 


3 

o 

*-* 

c ft 

B 

3 

C/5 


g.3 

2 0> 

O ctf 
,fl S* • 

Ss» 

’S-2 
•z E +* 
Xi.z c/5 

^ t-T* 
r* <L> 

S j>£ 
§**!§ 
Sf.S 

et ~ 

Q 


g120000 

40000 1 Jan. 1844 


40000 1 Jan. 1845 


40000 1 Jan. 1846 


40000 1 Jan. 1847 


40000 1 Jan. 1848 


}► 40000 l Jan. 1849 


40000 1 Jan. 1850 


40000 1 Jan. 1851 


40000 1 Jan. 1852 

















































































167 


Continuation of the List of Washington Certificates • 


Number of 

the Certificates, 

ALL DATED 

10 April, 1829. 

Number of Certificates of 
the same amount. 

Reimbursable when. 

Amount of each Certificate. 

Aggregate amount of the 

corresponding number of 

Certificates. 

Sums total for addition. 

Dates upon which the sums 

total are reimbursable in 

the United States. 

314 to 353. 


Carrried 

over, 

$480000 


Say, from three hundred 
and fourteen to three hun¬ 
dred and fifty-three. 

40 

1 Jan. 1853 

1000 

40000 


40000 

1 Jan. 1853 

354 to 393. 








Say, from three hundred 
and fifty-four to three hun¬ 
dred and ninety-three 

40 

1 Jan.1854 

1000 

40000 


40000 

1 Jan. 1854 

394 to 433. 








Say, from three hundred 
and ninety-four to four hun¬ 
dred and thirty-three 

40 

1 Jan. 1855 

1000 

40000 


40000 

1 Jan. 1855 

434 to 473. 








Say, from four hundred 
and thirty-four to four hun¬ 
dred a> d seventy-three. 

40 

1 Jan. 1856 

1000 

40000 


40000 

1 Jan. 1856 

474 to 500. 








Say, from four hundred 
and seventy-four to five 
hundred. 

27 

1 Jan. 1857 

1000 

27000 


\40000 

1 Jan. 1857 

50 i to 546. 






Say,from five hundred and 
one to five hundred and 

26 

l Jan. 1857 

500 

13000 




twenty-six. 








, 547 to 606. 








Say, from five hundred and 
twenty-seven to six hun¬ 
dred and six. 

80 

1 Jan. 1858 

500 

40000 


40000 

1 Jan. 1858 

607 lo 666. 








Say, from six hundred and 
seven to six hundred and 

80 

l Jan. 1859 

500 

40000 


40000 

1 Jan. 1859 

eighty-six. 








687 to 766. 

Say, from six hundred and 
eighty-seven to seven hun¬ 
dred and sixty-six. 

80 

1 Jan. 1860 

500 

40000 


40000 

1 Jan. 1860 

767 to 846. 

Say, from seven hundred 
and sixty-seven to eight 
hundred and forty-six. 

80 

1 Jan. 1861 

500 

40000 


40000 

1 Jan. 1861 

1 

Brought forward, 

$840000 























































































168 


Continuation of *he TAst of Washington Certificates . 


Number of 

the Certificates, 

ALE DATED 

10 April, 1829. 

Number of Certificates of 
the same amount. 

c 

CD 

JS 

•s 

3 

as 

£ 

3 

1 

‘33 

Pi 

Amount of each Certificate. 

Aggregate amount of the 

corresponding number of 

Certificates. 

Sums total for addition. 

Dates upon which the sums 

total are reimbursable in 

the United States. 

847 to 926. 

Say, from eight hundred 
and forty-seven to nine 
hundred and twenty-six. 

80 

C 

1 Jan. 1862 

)arrie< 

500 

1 over, 

40000 

$840u00 

40000 

40000 

40000 

40000 

1 Jan. 1862 

927 to i00G 

Say, from nine hundred 
and twenty-seven to one 
thousand and six. 

80 

1 Jan. 1863 

500 

1 

40000 

1 Jan. 1863 

1007 to 1086. 

Say, from one thousand 
and seven to one thousand 
and eighty-six. 

80 

1 Jan. 1864 

500 

40000 

1 Jan. 1864 

1087 to 1166. 

Say, from one thousand 
and eighty-seven to eleven 
{ hundred and sixty-six. 

80 

1 Jan. 1865 

500 

40000 

1 Jan.1865 

Sum total, $ 

1000000 


Say in all eleven hundred and sixty six certificates, 
amounting together to one million dollars. 

As witness our hands. 

DANIEL CROMMELIN & SONS, 
RICHARD RUSH, 














































169 


The following Letter from Mr. Rush to Mr. Gales, 
although not written from Europe as part of the 
report respecting the negotiation , is nevertheless 
deemed proper for insertion from its connection 
with the general subject. 

Mr. Rush to Joseph Gales, Jun. Mayor of the City of Wash¬ 
ington. 

Washington, January 29, 1830. 

Sir : 

Having heretofore drawn your attention to what 
the Messieurs Crommelins had stated respecting Mr. 
Willinck and the Messieurs Hope, in connexion with 
the District loan, it is proper that 1 should lay before 
you the enclosed extract of a letter from the latter 
gentleman to one of the house of Messrs. Baring upon 
this subject. It did not get to my hands until I had 
stepped on ship-board at Liverpool on the 16th of De¬ 
cember, and I avail myself of this earliest opportuni¬ 
ty since reaching this city, to send it to you. 

The reason why I did not make an application to 
the Messrs. Hopes respecting the loan, as intimated by 
them, will probably be inferred from the tenor of their 
extract, viz. an anticipation that it would not have 
met with favor in their eyes. 

I have the honor to remain, 

With great respect, &c. &c. Ike. 

RICHARD RUSH 

Jos. Gales, Jr. Esq. Mayor of Washington. 

22 


170 


Extract of a Letter from Messieurs Hope of Amsterdam , to 
one of the firm Messrs . of Baring of London , dated Am¬ 
sterdam , December 11 , 1829. 

“ We consider, as a proof of real friendship, your re¬ 
marks about an erroneous impression Mr. Rush seems to 
have received, that we have been industriously opposing 
ourselves to the District of Columbia loan: you were 
quite right in contradicting the fact. It is our constant 
rule never to oppose any business set on foot by one of our 
neighbors ; and we believe that the principles of our house 
are in this respect well known enough ; and certainly we 
should never think of doing so towards Messrs. Crommelins, 
a house with which we have been constantly upon an amica¬ 
ble footing, and for which we have ali the esteem due to 
their respectability and honorable character, It is true 
that we did not rank among the subscribers for that loan, 
and this is we believe the same case with our confidential 
agent for stock transactions. It is likewise true that we 
said to some confidential friends, that we were not enough 
acquainted with the financial resources of the three cities 
to encourage an investment of that description, and that 
the circumstance of the loan having been attempted in the 
United States without success, itself did not speak in favor 
of it. And all this we should have said to Mr. Rush him¬ 
self had he done us the honor, during his stay here, to 
converse with us on the subject. It is very possible that 
from ignorance we are mistaken, and that the financial re¬ 
sources of the three cities are over abundant; but we be¬ 
lieve that by saying so we have not acted beyond a free 
discussion which we believe to be permitted on subjects 
of general interest. It is moreover true, that on hearing 
the report (the correctness of which we have not been 
enabled to ascertain) that four Stock brokers had obtained 
their share in the loan at 96 per cent, while the general 
subscription price 98 1 . We did say that this appeared to 
be an objectionable mode of proceeding, but the whole is 
confined to simple private conversation ; whether this has 
been misrepresented we do not know, but we can give 
most positive assurance that on our part nothing more has 
been done in a concern the success of which we are far from 
opposing. A few of our correspondents wrote us about 
the 6aid loan after it had been already taken by the public. 


171 


and we replied in substance what we have just expressed. 
The esteem of a man of such eminent character as Mr. 
Rush being of too much importance for us, you will oblige 
us most essentially by communicating to him the contents 
of the present.” 


\X 

























































\ ~ />-• , -y ^ ^ V « 

^ * 
rU 

• a> t/> 

A x 





\\ " <s ^ ^ * &fi }r '"'^ + ' r \X < * ^ 

’oo' 

, 0 o 

vt* ^ J •> ✓<> ' £ v- ^TT a 'c^ 



8,1 . \r s s * ♦ i- 





* 








A ^ V—-c- a v <r " y o, ^ A 

A t O N c , * * s i .Ul^ <* A x C 

.N <«. c£^v^ ■/■ . ^r///% 2 _. * *7. A 

■/• •>* v 

O o 


N 







"/ > ,9 V *A*°* ^ v *> s AA 

*' ^ a* ; f AV yr V' V .* - 


* 0 o x. 


,\y <p 




* aV </> 

* V ' * * 

0° * A 

*/ / '" 10 

*V > <17 

«. rv\Wr-w//>? 

L V ^ 







O > Vp */* 
k T r 




<S> 0 \V 

<P «v 





• « A 



o « x 


o * . - . s ' \G 

4 ^ 

A * 

V A 

^ Jfc* 4 <* 

av * fSffliai * £ 

* * A' 

* \ A A ''. " * A A < y 0 * X - < v 

A V c«~ c * . '^b. * .o' <* 0' S 



A, 

> « 

*> 3 N & *<*«»* *b " 



A ^ 



t/> \ 


^ y .A 

lV 




A ^ ^ ' ,>'■ * ^ 

A* A* „ X -' A * 

- V * *5 £? -* & * 

-if' »/ n , "fc . <\ O ^ 

f o^ v’ 1 7.*, A. * a n 

: ^ :; '"o o' 1 





\° 









A" 

^ f » C ' X 




aV ^ 



1 «. ^ 

A * 8 , V A ^ % 

‘ ■& •<’ X' 

VAA -,p®t « 




/ 






















^ o 


& V > 8 C ' 0 • A *0 l ‘ s N ( *y * 

cP •,% 

' ^ ^ ~ -^ti-^*. * ? * % 4 



o> V 




'" «*? 
















., * 4 F**. 

<P\ 

* A 

N ® /» A_ 

^ A ^ ^AW'^ ✓ 

V- V £A\ ^jM4ULym v- 

• 0 ■ 4 ^ 

V X / 


A O t»* . n . 







JO 



* . a. 





' 0 . I * A 

* r^SNv <* r 



aN *, ^ 



' ’ 

*7% 

■i°' 

•J> 

A <- - , A ' , * m/u/ss* * 

v\i, *a ! % a*. x3r f/A- 

« r , *.««. . O O' 

i 0 °. 


- * nT , , Ar r 4* A 

</• ,\v 

* Z<\w\*/A , </> *v 



> 0 








* » ' '* \ \ S> c » «. . ^ * .9 M 0 

" A’’ A 


o * * 0 

^ ■*> A" *’■--.% ■■ ■ '• > A . 

■<• % r :'• , r ; . 'v ; Ar- „ 

.** A *o A A - V 

0 ^ . ' 1 * « 

a' A =fA^wA ^ o »' *«, -> ■* 

V? c r -. ,, \ - ■>> v - .if ; ' * A' 

__ * * J / .: x o o, : ,.v : 

o 




K0 J ’/ 

> JO * 1 " fJ / 'c 

* -V ~ A'.. ■ /„ 

<£> * ■ {. \ O '«/» A' 

* A V A. : M'l ? 7 A A z 














